KP: Zoids New Centry Possible
by Blue Kiwi
Summary: Team Possible has been betrayed from within, now they must find allies if they are to survive. Can a friend from Felix's past help.
1. Meetings

**Zoids: New Century Possible**

Organised under strict rules and regulations, Zoid battles are fighting competitions held upon enormous battle fields using mechanical combat units known as Zoids. The enthusiastic young warriors put their pride on the line and sharpen their skills against one another....

Battle mode approved...

Area scanned.....

Battlefield setup...

Ready.....

Fight!

Zoids - powerful animal-shaped combat mechs - are no longer used in warfare, but in organized sporting competitions. Team Possible, are a group of young pilots struggling to carve out a niche for themselves in the Zoid battling leagues. After a string of losses the team has been betrayed from within, now with the entire future of the team on the line. It all comes down to the next battle....

Felix just continued to look at his Sabre Tiger zoid, at just over nine meters high and 15 meters long weighing 78 tons it never failed to inspire him. True the Sabre Tiger was not the most modern or powerful zoid out, but a friend had long ago taught him that as long as your zoid was well maintained and in harmony with its pilot. Then you would be near unbeatable on the battlefield.

"Damm it all to Nyx!!"

Felix looked glanced over towards where the curse came from. A positively tweaked Kim Possible stood in front of her Mk II Command Wolf, while it wasn't as big as the Sabre Tiger it was still an impressive high performance zoid. Well as impressive as it could be given that it was almost completely non operable at the moment due to damage. Although truth be told, it was probably in better shape than his Sabre Tiger at the moment. The damages on his zoid would mean that it would be out of commission for several weeks at least getting repaired, and that was the good news.

Hearing footsteps behind him Felix quickly pivoted his wheelchair around to face the dark beauty coming up to him.

"How's the Dibison Monique"

"Cored"

"Damn, Eric really didn't like you did he?"

"You really think it was Eric that did this?"

"Our zoid's couldn't have gotten this damage even in battle, this was deliberate. Someone had to have planted precisely placed charges to get this effect on our zoid's. And to core a Dibison, you would have to use a hybrid cannon or a charged particle canon."

"Using that type of firepower would have destroyed my entire Dibison, not just cored it. Still you really think it was Eric that did this?"

"Only someone who had clearance through our security would have access to our zoid's. And last I checked Eric wasn't taken off the cleared list, and none of his codes have been removed. It will be an easy check though. And given what's happening in 48 hours he has reason."

"Kim's not going to like this Felix."

"Kim won't even believe it was Eric. She still hasn't accepted that he's going to be fighting us in two days."

"Yeah, and if we loose..."

"This team is done, and considering that we have two wrecked zoid's and one cored zoid it's not looking too good that we will win."

Hearing footsteps coming across the hanger the two turned towards the sound, and saw Kim's parents the Dr's Possible coming in from where the teams transport was docked. They started to walk towards them, with Kim joining them when they walked past her Command Wolf. They meet the Drs Possible half-way across the hanger.

"Dad how's the Whale King?"

Mr Possible looking concerned sighed "Not good Kimmie-cub, the stabilisers are destroyed and the thrusters are non operable. It won't be going anywhere for quite a while. How are your zoid's?"

"The Command Wolf's weapons are all off-line or destroyed, battle programme is wiped, gyros are destroyed and all joints are seized up. Felix, how's the Sabre Tiger?"

"The same plus all the legs have been crippled. And Monique's Dibison has been cored."

Kim frowned, this was not good news. For a zoid to have its core destroyed, it effectively meant it had been killed. "Cored? Are you sure Monique?"

"Yeah Kim, it had a direct charge to the core. Blew it right out."

"Oh that's just spankin. While we could feasibly get the Command Wolf back on-line for the battle, there's no way we'll get the Sabre Tiger functional in time. Plus we have to replace the Dibison. Even if we do somehow manage to get all zoid's working or replaced, we still have no way to get there as the Whale King is out of commission."

Kim ran her hand through her hair in frustration.

"Plus we still don't have a fourth pilot for the battle, and it has been stated four on four or we forfeit."

"I'm aware of that Monique. Funny thing is every pilot I approached to fill the forth spot on the team refused."

"Considering our loosing streak of late I can't say I blame them Kim."

Kim looked thoughtfully at Monique "It's more than that Monique; everyone I asked seemed scared for some reason. Even Felix's friend Ron turned me down flat."

Monique just rolled her eyes' "He's working with the Mad Dog team now Kim, that's why he turned you down."

"_That and Kim's reputation...."_

"What was that Felix?"

Felix just sighed and turned toward the hanger doors, wheeling towards them.

"Just where do you think you are going Felix?"

"Into town Mr Possible..."

Kim looked at Felix cursorily, "Why? What are you going to do there Felix."

"I'm going in for a couple of reasons Kim, one. We need parts to repair our zoids…"

Mr Possible just shock his head, even though Felix was still heading towards the door and couldn't see him.

"We can't afford the parts to repair the zoid's, and our credit is maxed out at the moment Felix."

"And two, I have a friend that came into town last night that could help, both as a pilot and with our zoid situation."

Kim perked up at the mention of a pilot, "Is he any good as a pilot Felix?"

Felix quickly pivoted around towards Kim.

"He's a 'class A' pilot Kim, so yeah he's good."

Mr Possible was looking intrigued, "You mentioned something about zoid's Felix?"

"He travels around with several zoid's in tow at all times, he says it's to throw off the competition. So that they don't know what zoid he will use in any given battle, and so that he can work in better with any team that he works with. So he can adjust to their style of battle. The zoid's aren't the most modern, but I guarantee they are all well maintained and modified to the max."

"He's a mercenary? I've told you Felix I won't work with mercenaries."

"He's not a mercenary Kim; he will only work with you if you are a friend or a friend of a friend. And he doesn't work for money; he may do it because he saw an old beat up zoid that caught his eye that you own. Or just because you need the help."

Mrs Possible had been listening quietly to the conversation, stopped to consider what Felix was saying. "Do you think he would be interested in staying on permanently Felix?"

Kim turned enquiringly towards her mother, "Mom?"

"Well Kimmie, we need to find a permanent replacement for Eric, so if he works out well with the coming battle. We might want to consider keeping him on."

"But mom, Eric…."

Mrs Possible frowned at her eldest child

"Eric is NOT coming back to this team Kimmie, not after this."

Kim just looked at her feet, "There's no evidence that Eric sabotaged our zoid's."

Mrs Possible just shock her head, Kim could be remarkably bind. Especially where a pretty face was concerned, she just turned back to Felix.

"Well do you think your friend would consider working with the team full time Felix?"

Felix shook his head, "Sorry Mrs Possible, I don't think that would work out."

Mrs Possible was intrigued, "Any particular reason Felix, I'd think that he would want to be on a team. Especially as a "Class A" pilot, after all his matches would be limited as a single pilot."

"He has no problems with matches; he often fights one on three battles. If you offered him the position though I'm sure he would jump at the offer, it's more that the team won't accept him."

Kim turned sharply towards Felix, looking intrigued. "Explain Felix, are you saying we would snub him"

Felix looked slightly uncomfortable, and then just shrugged his shoulders.

"Well no you wouldn't, it's just that he doesn't do things the way we do."

Kim's curiosity was peaked "Explain"

Felix just looked at the group, "Well he's not Academy, and doesn't think much of Academy trained pilots. Indeed he thinks we're overrated, and after going up against him I would have to agree. Of course the fact that he thoroughly trounced me within ten minutes could just be because he's that good. He's also kind of, well, I suppose the best way to describe him is eccentric. You have to meet him to really understand that, but he doesn't do things by the book."

Kim looked downcast, "I see what you mean Felix, as a non-academy pilot he problely wouldn't be able to keep up with us."

Felix shook his head; Kim had completely taken what he had just said the wrong way. As he expected she would, Kim was one of a majority of Academy graduates that believed that if you weren't Academy trained you weren't a good pilot.

The Academy hadn't been around for long, only for ten years. It was brought in by the Zoid Battle Commission shortly after the Royal cup that was won by the Blitz Team, when the Backdraft Organisation tried to take over. It was a Royal cup that was still talked about to this day, with every young pilot wanting to be the next Bit Cloud. That was the aim of the Academy to train up young pilots, to the level that was shown in that final battle.

The Academy had produced some truly remarkable pilots, including Kim, who had passed with the highest scores ever in the history of the Academy. None had, in Felix's estimation, graduated that would be capable to beat Bit Cloud in a one on one. He had seen some of the top graduates' beaten by non graduates' often enough. His friend said the training made them predictable, again Felix agreed. Eric was a good pilot, but all his attack's and counters came straight from the manual. To a lesser extent so did Kim's, not that he would ever say that. He would just go for making a heavy point instead, "Kim we're Academy trained and are 'class C', he's non-Academy and is 'class A'. And before you say he's older and been competing for longer, he's the same age as us n been competing for two years. Give or take."

Monique chuckled, "He's got you there girl."

Kim just crossed her arms across her chest and harrumphed.

Mrs Possible chuckled with the rest of them, "Flex, why don't you take Kim and Monique with you. That way you can see how well your friend will get along with everybody."

Mr Possible sighed and turned to Kim, "Go see Gustavo, and see if we can trade in the Dibison for parts and weapons for the Command Wolf."

Turning and walking over towards Felix with Monique at her side, Kim waved over her shoulder. "O.k. dad, I'll see what I can do."

ZNCP

Travelling in towards Middleton there was a lot of transports and zoids on the road. Gustav's were pulling zoids on trailers, trucks and personal zoids were also travelling the roads. With traffic getting heavier the closer to the city limits the team got.

Monique was sitting between Kim and Felix in the cab of the truck. Felix was driving while Kim looked out the window lost in thought. Monique was curious about this friend of Felix's, and how they had met. "So tell me Felix, how do you know your friend? Where did you meet?"

Felix briefly glanced at Monique, before concentrating back on the road. He didn't say anything for a bit, and Monique was starting to think that he wasn't going to answer.

"We met at Hammer Bay three years ago; I was staying with Ron at his uncle's place for the summer. Tara was in town with her father, after he had a zoid battle with his Coalition team. She got in contact with me and we were to meet up at the Battleground for lunch…."

"Ohhhh, I love that place, their Seven Layers of Heaven, chocolate cake is to die for."

Kim's shrill squeal of delight caught both Monique and Felix off guard, causing both to jump.

Monique slapped Kim on the shoulder once she caught her breath, "DDTG, you almost gave me a heart attack."

Kim looked slightly abashed, "sorry Mon, but you know how good that cake is."

Monique just rolled her eyes; Kim's obsession with that cake was legendary. She was introduced to it two years ago when her father had gone to Hammer Bay on a business trip when he worked at the Battle Commission centre. He had taken the family with him on the trip, and they had gone to the Battleground for dinner on the last night. That was when Kim first tasted the Seven Layers of Heaven cake; it was love at first bite. Now every time she was back in Hammer Bay she had to get the cake. The problem was that the chef that baked the cake was not always there; he would come and go at random intervals. Kim was known to buy the whole cake if she happened to be in time to get one, and she wasn't known to share it either. In fact she was known to go postal if someone ate her last piece, or any piece for that matter.

Monique just continued to look at Kim, who started to get uncomfortable under her gaze, tried to move Monique's attention away from her. "So Felix you were saying about you, Ron, and Tara having dinner……."

The change in topic worked and Monique turned back to Felix, "Yeah, go on, what happened then?"

Felix frowned, "Well we got to Battleground and found that our table had been given to other diners, and we were told to basically wait or leave…."

Monique frowned at that news, "Well that was rude."

"Yeah, we found out later, that the guy was new to the job and had let it go to his head. By the time we had dinner and left he wasn't on the front door anymore."

"Whoa, hang on; you're missing a bit there. What happened between arriving and leaving?" Kim interjected animatedly.

Felix just smiled, "I'm getting to that part." He said with a light chuckle.

"Anyway we were auguring with the guy on the front desk…."

"The Maitre d'," interjected Kim and Monique.

"Jinx you owe me a soda." Kim got in just before Monique.

"Fine I'll get you one when we get to town, diet or regular?" Monique growled.

"Diet, please and thank you. You were saying Felix?"

"I was saying that front desk guy, who I don't believe was the Maitre d', was kicking us out when this kid about our age wanders over and asks what's going on. I didn't think much of it, but desk guy suddenly changes from asshole to ass kisser, says nothing was wrong and we were just leaving."

Having just entered the city limits, Felix changed lanes making to head towards Gustavo's

"This pissed Tara off and she quickly tells Blondie what had happened and th….."

"Blondie? Who was the blond?" Monique enquired.

"The kid that had come up to us, he had short unkempt blond hair with a cowlick at the back. Now if I can finish the story with out further interruptions." Felix quickly glared at the girls, while going around a corner heading to Middleton's industrial area.

"So anyway blondie, after listening to Tara, invites us to join him for dinner. He pointed out his table to us, and as we headed over he had words to front desk guy. Over dinner we started talking and found out that the kid was working part time at the restaurant, while trying to start his own zoid team up. When he heard that we were from the Academy, he became very interested and wanted to know what we did there. Well one thing lead to another, and it ended with an invitation to join him the next day for some zoid training."

Kim looked inquisitively at Felix, "And that was it?"

Felix smirked, "Actually that was just the beginning, when we met him the next day outside the bay. Tara had somehow gotten a hold of her fathers Heldigunner, Ron turned up with his uncles Zeekdober. I went along for the ride, as I had no zoid I could use. As it turned out blondie turned up with two Shield Ligers, and let me pilot one. We were going through a few formations and attacks when another team turned up, this was a fairly new class C team just formed. They tried to be tough guys and drive us off, one thing lead to another, and somehow a judge ended up at the site approving battle mode 0983."

"You ended up in an official zoid battle? No way, what happened?" Monique practically shrieked in Felix's ear.

"We were registered as a team, and battled. Believe it or not we even won, barely. Which was a good thing, as Tara and Ron needed the money to cover repairs of their zoids. Since then we stayed together as an unofficial team, every break from the Academy, Tara, Ron and I would join up and resume on the team." Felix finished pulling into Gustavo's zoid yard.

Kim looking thoughtful at what Felix had said opened her door and got out of the truck.

Monique turning to follow quickly shot over her shoulder. "So that's what you got up to when we were at zoid camp. Explains why you're such a good Pilot."

Getting out of the truck, Monique joined Kim in front of it waiting as Felix had his chair convert from it's folded down state to full wheelchair mode. He quickly joined Kim and Monique.

Kim turned to Felix, "well that explains the bad habits you have."

Felix just smirked at Kim, "If by bad habits, you mean that I don't treat the manual as gospel. Then yeah, I prefer to think for myself."

Felix turned meaning to head off, when Kim placed a hand on his shoulder. Looking at Kim Felix just raised an eyebrow.

"A couple of quick questions before you head off, what's your friend like with working in a team?"

Felix turned to face Kim, and answered without hesitation. "He has a reputation for not working well with others, wholly undeserved in my opinion."

Kim looked downcast, "So he won't work well with us, is what you are saying."

"No Kim I said that he had a rep as not working well with others."

"Explain" Kim said starting to affect a mildly tweaked tone, thinking that Felix was playing her.

"My friend isn't a details kind of guy; he's more a big picture person."

Kim and Monique just looked at Felix, Felix sighed. "If you try to give the in-depth orders to him that you normally give Kim, he will wonder off before you are finished and do his own thing. On the other hand you can give him a brief order and assume that he knows what he's doing; he'll follow your orders fine."

Kim crossed her arms and affected an affronted look, "I always assume you know what you're doing, otherwise why are you on the team."

"Yeah, but you have control issues girl."

"I so don't Monique"

"Girl, that last battle we were in, you were practically sitting in my lap driving the Dibison."

"Well if you had simply followed my orders, and taken out that Double Sworder how I told you to it wouldn't have been a problem."

"And if you use that attitude on my friend, he will ignore you and do his own thing."

Kim slammed her hands on her hips "Fine, let him do his own thing."

"No he's fine with direction, in fact he needs direction. He can be just a tad too laid back, just don't micro-manage."

Monique looked questionly at Felix, "Laid back? How laid back are we talking here?"

Felix laughed, "He doesn't loaf around, he marinates as he puts it, loafing around for the professional."

Monique looked surprised, "So you were in charge of the team then?"

Felix smirking away at the expressions on Kim and Monique's faces, answered with another chuckle. "No he was team leader."

Kim just stared at Felix at that statement, and exclaimed "You're kidding right? He's lazy and untrained, yet you let him lead the team."

Felix stopped smiling at that point and interrupted whatever Kim was going to add on. "He's not lazy Kim; he works hard at what he does. Just look at our record as a team, we lost no battles…At all. He's just learned to stop and appreciate the view on the way. And for your information he was… is a damn good leader, gives brief orders and expects you to be able to carry them out in your own way. He is very adaptable to the changing conditions on the battlefield, and can react accordingly. You could learn a lot from him, if you can learn to stop and listen."

Monique chuckled, "He sounds like a very interesting person to work with Felix, I'm looking forward to meeting him."

"Yeah well, interesting is perhaps the nicest way anyone has described him. If there's nothing else…"

Kim was looking slightly uncomfortable, "Wellllll, I was wondering what you meant when you said nobody would join due to my rep."

Both Felix and Monique were looking uncomfortable, looking everywhere but at Kim.

"Oh come on it can't be that bad, can it?"

Felix was looking at his lap, "Welllll, you do have a rep as a controlling ….."

Kim was starting to get tweaked, "Speak up Felix, I can't hear you"

Felix sighed and looked at Kim, "Controlling hard nose perfectionist who only hires pretty boy's, all right."

Kim looked stunned, she quickly looked at Monique. "Mon?"

Monique just shrugged, "No that's about the gist of it."

"But but, that's not true. I don't just hire pretty boys."

Felix quickly covered his mouth, "Kaf kaf Josh, kaf Eric."

Monique smiled at Felix, "Hey she hired you baby boy."

Felix smiled, "Yeah but I'm a pretty boy, I just happen to be talented and pretty."

Everyone laughed at that.

Kim then looked seriously at Felix, "I don't hire on looks Felix…"

"Kim, Ron is fives times the pilot that Eric is, but you hired Eric. Why?"

"Eric had some of the best test scores in the Academy. Everyone knows that."

"He had better scores on paper than Ron true, but Ron out did him in the cockpit every time. But you hired Eric because he was a pretty face you were crushing on. That you're still crushing on, that's why you won't believe that he has turned traitor to this team."

Kim just looked uncomfortable, looking down at her shoes saying nothing. Monique quickly turned to Felix, "That's enough Felix."

"It needs to be said Monique."

"Not now…"

"If not now, then when. Because in less than two days we're facing him in battle, if we lose we are way beyond screwed. It will be the death of this team, so I need to know that Kim is going to be able to perform up to par in this battle."

Kim just looked at Felix, "Don't worry about the battle, when it comes time to fight my head will be in the game."

Felix just nodded and switched his chair into flight mode. "Good, I'll meet you at the battle centre in about an hour. It'll give me and Ron some time to catch up before you get there."

As he was just starting to fly off Felix stopped and turned slightly towards the girls, "Kim if you need to, you can trade the Sabre Tiger in as well."

"Are you sure Felix?"

"Yeah, I'll be driving a Shield Liger in the coming battle."

Both Kim and Monique stood with their mouths open, "What, how….?"

Felix smirked, "My friend has kept the Shield Liger I first used with him. He'll let me use it, if I ask."

He then started to fly off towards the battle centre, when Monique quickly called out to him, "Hey Felix, who was that first team you beat?"

Felix yelled back over his shoulder, as he continued on his way, "The D' Hall'ers."

"Shit." Monique and Kim looked at each other, the D' Hall'ers was the top "class B" team. They had a rep as bullies, picking on weaker teams. They didn't use much in the way of tactics, preferring to use brute force. They quickly turned back to Felix's retreating figure.

The girls followed his progress for a while before Kim turned to Monique, "Do you really think that's why I hired Eric, Monique?"

Monique looked at her friend, the confident assertive young lady that Kim normally was, was not who she was looking at, at the moment. Her self confidence had taken a blow with this betrayal by Eric, rubbing her face in it would not help the saturation. Of course blame could be placed on Monique as well, considering that she was the one that encouraged Kim to pursue Eric in the first place. She shrugged her shoulders, "You made the best call you could at the time, and no one knew how it would turn out. Now come on we need to get parts and weapons for the zoids."

Monique guided her friend in towards Gustavo's main office.

ZNCP

Monique was keeping an eye on Kim as she was going over the financial records for Team Possible at Gustavo's, it had been twenty minutes and Kim was about ready to explode. It seemed as if Eric had been purchasing equipment and weapons on the team's account, even after he had left the team. None of the equipment had been seen by the team either. Kim was not happy at this turn of events, as the amount of money owed was staggering. Even trading in the Dibison and Saber Tiger, would not be enough to cover the debt. Or even half of the debts, let alone allow them to re-outfit the Command Wolf.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS HE OUTFITTING, AN ELEPHANDER? When did he do this, how? Why did he do this?"

"I don't know Kim, so what are we going to do?"

Kim just looked at Monique, resigned to the fact that they might not be able to do anything. "I guess we go out and see Gustavo, and see if we can at least get some weapons for the Command Wolf"

Kim got up out of the chair and headed to the front reception out of Gustavo's office, to talk to Gustavo.

It had been a further 10 minutes that Kim had been negotiating with Gustavo; Monique had been half listening in to what was happening. Her mind was more on the upcoming battle and how much it seemed to rest on Felix's friend. If he didn't help them they were done as a team. As she was contemplating this she noticed a boy about her age come in the front door, he was probably about their age, slightly taller than herself and Kim. He had short scruffy blond hair, with freckles across his face and big ears. What Monique really noticed were his eyes, he had big brown eyes.

'_Himmm, not a hottie but definitely cute, if we spruce up his clothes a bit he would be quite a catch.'_

He was wearing tan cargo pants with old sneakers, a black pullover on with a red vest over that. Monique watched him as he meandered up to the front counter stopping just a couple of steps behind Kim, and continued to appraise him as waited to talk to Gustavo.

'_Slim, but with a solid build under those clothes if I'm not mistaken. And I never am. I wonder if he will be in town for a few days.'_

Gustavo and Kim were negotiating over weapons for her Command Wolf when the guy spoke up, "You're going to put a CP-04 unit on a Command Wolf without boosters on its rear legs that will slow you down far too much. You should try putting the new PW-10 unit on, it will give you far greater fire power. True you will have a smaller range, but um your umm speed and manoverrr um yeah…" with his hand behind his neck he stalled off on what he was saying. Of course considering the glare that Kim was giving him, it was not surprising. If looks could kill, this guy would be well and truly fried.

"Sure, I'll just put that on my zoid not a problem. Just after I have it waxed and buffed." Kim snarked at him.

Gustavo, either not getting Kim's sarcasm, or trying to prevent a fight, quickly jumped in. "No, no PW-10 units in stock, only CP-04."

Still looking nervous, with his hand behind his neck the blond spoke up, "Ummm well, I've a couple out in the Hover Cargo if you want one."

Kim hands on her hips looking tweaked got into his face "And what would you want for them, himmmm."

"Ummm, nothing."

"Nothing? You would just give them to a complete stranger for nothing?"

"Kim."

"Uh Welll, it's not like I need them. "

"So basically what you are saying is that you're taking pity on me and giving me your left overs."

"Kimmmm."

"Uh no, umm yes, uhhh maybe."

"Well what is it yes or no."

"What was the question again?"

"Are you giving me the wea….."

"KIM!"

Kim turned to look at Monique, who just grabbed her arm and started pulling her out of Gustavo's.

"Time to go Kim, Gustavo thank you for your help, you can pick the zoid's up from the compound." She then turned briefly to the blond, "Sorry for my friend, we're getting her help. If you're in town in a couple of days ring me at Team Possible." With that she dragged Kim towards the door.

Once the girls were outside Monique let go of Kim's arm and turned to face her. "Girl WTH."

Kim not even blinking or looking apologetic responded, "I don't know what you're talking about Mon? I mean it was rude of you to interrupt our discussion like that."

Monique raised an eyebrow, "ROM? The guy was just trying to be helpful, and you practically rip him a new one. Then practically demand weapons from him. Girl I know you're tweaked at the sitch, but you have got to get it under control."

"Me get it under control? I'm not the one who was practically throwing herself at him at the end there."

Monique just smiled, "What he's cute, no harm in shopping while we're here. Come on; let's go meet this friend of Felix's."

Kim just sighed, "Yeah we might as well, Gustavo's is a bust. Shit, we're going to have to contact all our suppliers to make sure Eric isn't doing the same thing to our accounts with them."

The girls headed over to the truck, just as they were getting in a stray thought went through Monique's mind.

'_Hey, didn't Felix say his friend had scruffy blond hair.'_

ZNCP

The Girls were walking through the Battle Commission centre towards the comissionary area; Kim was not in a good mood. She had contacted her father and told him what had happened at Gustavo's, he then proceed to contact their entire list of supplier's. When he got back in contact, he informed them that Eric had done the same with all of their suppliers. The team was beyond saving at this point; even if they did win this battle it wouldn't save the team. They would need to win the next twenty battles just to get to a point where they could see the light at the end of the tunnel. And that was only if they placed all their winnings into paying off their debts, which wasn't likely to be able to happen. The zoid's would need to be maintained, that's if none of them took any major battle damage. If they had any zoid's.

Kim sighed; it looked like they were in a hole that they weren't going to get out of easily. As they walked into the comissionary Kim looked around for Felix and Ron, she spied them sitting over in a corner near one of the big screens that was spread around the room. Kim got Monique's attention and started heading over towards Felix and Ron, as they were walking over Kim checked out Ron. He was about her height, maybe a little taller. A little pudgy, but generally slim, had freckles and shaggy red hair. No he wasn't a hottie, but he was a good zoid pilot. He was very similar to Felix in how they approached battles, and in that thought she came up with the answer to why she didn't hire Ron. She didn't want or need two similar pilots on the team; she wanted diversity to better play off of each other as a team.

As they got to the table that the boys were at, Monique briefly looked up at the screen, where a zoid battle was just about to commence.

"Who's fighting?" Monique enquired as she and Kim sat down at the table.

Ron briefly looked over at Monique from where he was talking to Felix, then quickly glanced up at the screen, "Oh that's the Fuzzy Panda's vs. Unstoppable."

Kim looked quizzically at Ron, "Fuzzy Panda's?"

Monique leaned over to Kim "You know the Zabre Fang Team."

Twelve years earlier the team had been known as the Tiger Team, but in a battle against the Blitz Team, Bit Cloud had called them the Fuzzy Panda's. The name had stuck, even after they changed their name to the Zabre Fangs.

Monique looked back at Felix, "This live?"

"Nah, it's a repeat from earlier."

Kim and Monique looked up at the screen, the judge had just given the order to fight and Unstoppable in a blue Shield Liger was rushing straight towards the Sabre Fang's with his shield up. By all accounts he was looking to ram the Zabre Fang team.

"Ramming with the shield, that won't work, the Zabre's have far too much time to get out of the way. What's he thinking?"

Ron just looked at Kim as if she was slow, "Maybe he's looking to catch them off guard?"

"How, by doing a textbook shield ram, while giving the other team far to much time to move."

Ron just snorted, "Nothing Unstoppable does is by the book. He would have had to have read the book first. He's au natural in everything he does. He has this won in two moves."

Felix looking to calm every body down, mainly Kim who was looking tweaked at Ron's surliness towards her. "Just watch Kim, and see something that's not in the book."

Kim turned back to the screen to continue to watch the battle.

The Sabre Fangs hadn't moved as the Liger closed in on them, they just waited as it closed the gap. Then when the Shield Liger was closing in to about 200 meters the outside Sabre Fangs both turned out away from the centre Sabre Fang, at the same time the middle Sabre Fang dropped to the ground presenting a low target. It was clear that they were going to box the Liger between them and either force it to trip or catch it in a cross fire. It probably would have worked if it wasn't for the fact that as soon as they moved the Liger dropped his shield and popped out his missile launchers, firing them at the outside Sabre Tigers as they presented side on. At point blank range he couldn't miss, both zoid's systems froze almost instantly from the damage they took, at the same time the Liger jumped and hit the grounded Sabre Fang with its strike claws along its back. It to, was placed into a system freeze from the hit it took.

Over all the battle took about 2-3 minutes, the time it took for the Shield Liger to cross the battle field. Kim's jaw just dropped. "That's not in the textbook, how did he do that? And more importantly how do we get him to join our team."

Ron looked over at Kim and smirked, "Why would he want to join your team, he's successful by himself. Besides you wouldn't hire him, he wouldn't fit your hottie criteria."

Kim turned on Ron, "Is that what you think Reger, that I didn't hire you as you're not a hottie? Get over yourself, the reason I didn't hire you is because you and Felix are virtually identical in your piloting styles. Why have two of the same when you can have a variety, helping to create a more adaptable team."

Everyone's jaw dropped at that statement from Kim, though if it was from the statement or the fact that Kim didn't hesitate in her response was unknown.

Monique was the first to recover, pulling her purse out she gave Kim some money. "Hey Kim could you get us a couple of drinks, my shout as I owe you a soda."

Kim knowing she was being given a timeout to stop an escalation of hostilities just asked what flavour Monique wanted and headed over to the drinks section.

Monique meanwhile had been thinking about what Felix had been saying bout his friend. "Felix your friend is Unstoppable isn't he?"

Felix was just about to reply when Monique continued on, "he has blond hair, but does he have freckles and brown eyes, about Reger's height with a tight build?"

Felix looking confused answered, "Um yes and yes, how did you…"

Monique rubbing her hand over her face looking uncomfortable answered, "Ummm I think we just met him at Gustavo's."

Ron instantly jumped in, "What did Kim do!"

Just as Monique was going to answer, a familiar voice came back from behind her. "Kim who's Kim? And why would she do anything? Not saying that she wouldn't, as obviously she did. But would it be wrong for her to do so, or would it even matter?"

She looked over her shoulder and sure enough, there was the blond she had seen earlier at Gustavo's. Reger jumped up clasping his friend on the back and dragging him around to Felix. Just then Kim came back with the drinks, seeing the commotion with the guys she just handed Monique her drink and popped the tab on her drink pouring it into a glass.

"This the guy, what's he like Mon."

Kim hadn't gotten a good look at him as Reger currently had him in a head lock while Felix was giving him a noggie, thus obstructing her view.

Monique just shrugged her shoulders, wondering what Kim would do when she saw who it was. "Well let's just say he's familiar, and kind of unstoppable in his approach to doing things."

Kim feeling confused was about to ask Monique to clarify when Felix noticed Kim standing to the side drinking from her class, he introduced his friend.

"Kim, Monique I'd like you to meet my friend Ron 'Unstoppable'. Ron meet Kim Poss....."

At that moment Ron had straightened up and turned around, eliciting a spit take from Kim.

"YOU"

"Eeeep"

Monique not wanting anything to happen jumped up and grabbed Kim by the arm starting to drag her away while calling over her shoulder to Felix. "Felix take care of the details, we'll see you back at base." She then proceeded to drag a spluttering Kim from the area.

Felix and the two Ron's just watched as the two girls left the commissary, Ron U turned to Felix and asked "That the girl you want me to help?"

"Umm, yeah, that's her."

"A booya, I'm in."

Reger just turned to Ron "You are!? Why would you want to, she's a bitch."

Ron just shrugged his shoulders, "I donno, I just like her. She's fiery. Who's up for some arcade games?"

Felix just looked at his friend, marvelling at how he just seemed to go with the flow. "Would love to, but we have to get to Hammer Bay by midday the day after tomorrow."

"Badical, how we getting there?"

"What you using to transport your zoid's?"

"Hover Cargo."

"That's it then, it does 200kph right."

"Modified, 300kph, how many zoid's you taking?"

Felix sighed,"None, in fact we need to borrow yours."

Ron quickly turned to Felix, "What happened?"

"I'll brief you when we get back to the team base."

Ron just shrugged his shoulders; no doubt Felix would fill him in when needed. Ron had other things on his mind at the moment of greater importance. '_Man she's beautiful when she's tweaked, the way her eyes flashed......'_

ZNCP

Retrieved from ".com/wiki/List_of_Battle_Modes"


	2. Introductions

Disney owns Kim Possible, Tomy owns Zoid's.

A small but positive start for the first chapter, thanks for the reviews. Well here's chapter two, for those not familiar with zoid's I placed the battle modes and what type of zoid each mentioned is at the bottom.

Chapter 2: Introductions

* * *

The Dr's Possible were just finishing lunch with their twin 12 year old boys, when a red headed storm cloud in the form of their eldest child stomped in through the back door. Without pause she stomped through the kitchen, into the lounge, and then they could hear her footsteps going up the stairs heading towards her bedroom. After a couple of minutes, Monique came in the back door looking exasperated. She went to the fridge and got herself out a soda, popping the tab she sat down at the table with the rest of Kim's family.

Mrs Possible looked over at Monique with a questioning look on her face, "So how did it go dear, is he going to help us?"

Monique just shrugged her shoulders, "Don't know?"

Mr Possible sighed, "Did he not turn up?" With the latest news that Eric had done to the team, he was really counting on Felix's friend helping them. They all were everything depended on him being able to help them.

Monique looked over at Mr Possible, "No he turned up."

Mr Possible frowned; the brevity of information coming from Monique was not helping the matters at hand. "And."

"And he's Unstoppable."

Mr Possible's frown grew even more, "Unstoppable as in he wouldn't stop hitting on My Kimmie cub. I knew it that no good..."

Monique quickly jumped in before he got carried away, "No as in Team Unstoppable."

The twins at hearing Team Unstoppable mentioned perked up.

"No way..."

"The Unstoppable..."

"That is soooo..."

"Cool. We're going to have..."

"Unstoppable on our team. Hicka bicka boo..."

"Hoo sha."

Monique feeling dizzy from watching the twins doing their tennis match talking thought it would be prudent to calm everyone down before they got to excited. "I wouldn't count my Unstoppable's just yet guys; his helping us depends on how much damage control Felix can do."

The twins on hearing this just frowned, while Mrs Possible looking to cut the twins off before they started up, "Jim, Tim clean your plates up and head out to the hanger and see what you can do with the Command Wolf."

The twins groaned but just picked their plates up and headed over to the sink to clean up their dishes. Mrs Possible turned back to Monique, "So what happened, Monique?"

Monique quickly filled them in on what happened at Gustavo's, and then them meeting Felix's friend.

Mrs. Possible just shrugged, "Well we can only wait and see what happens, Monique grab yourself some lunch."

She then went out to the staircase in the lounge and called up them for Kim to come down and get something to eat.

It had been about thirty minutes, and Kim and Monique were just finishing up lunch. When one of the twins came running in from the hanger, he pulled to a sudden stop in a very excited state. "A Hover Cargo has just pulled up behind the hanger."

The words were no sooner out of his mouth, than Kim and Monique jumped up and rushed out to the hanger. Running up to the hanger doors they were confronted with the sight of a Hover Cargo pulled just off to the side as a Gustav pulled up to the hanger with three trailers attached. The driver of the Gustav introduced himself, he was from Gustavo's, and was there to pick up the zoid's. Kim and Monique wanted to go over and see who was in the Hover Cargo, but were instructed to show the driver where the zoid's were for pick-up. As they were starting to head back towards the hanger doors they saw the silhouettes of Felix and two others, one was clearly the boy from this morning, Ron. The other was unknown; he was a short pudgy boy whoever he was. As they came in through the hanger doors, Ron headed straight over to the Command Wolf. The Twins, who had resumed working on the Wolf, stopped what they were doing as Ron looked at it.

After a couple of minutes of looking at Ron looking at the Wolf he suddenly called out to the twins, "The weapons destroyed, battle programme wiped, gyros destroyed with all the joints seized up?"

Everyone was surprised at that question, Kim was the first to answer, "Uh yeah, how did you know?"

Ron didn't answer the question, he just shook his head, "Lemme guess another one of your zoid's has all the same damage plus all its legs have been crippled with your third cored."

It wasn't a guess, it was a statement, again Kim answered, "Yes, but how did you know?"

Ron, once more didn't answer, he just gave a half smile and continued talking, "You won ten battles in a row, and then lost fifteen. Mainly due to small mechanical faults. Then your team member that hadn't ever got any of those faults claims that he hasn't been paid since he started on the team. When you go to check there are no records of his pay transactions having happened."

Everyone was just gawking at Ron open mouthed, that was exactly what had happened. How did he know this? He carried on talking.

"You now have to fight a four on four battle to settle all debts, and have found all your credit has been tapped. Yes."

Once more it wasn't a question, merely a statement of fact. Kim nodded, while Mr Possible answered, "How do you know all this, were…"

Before he could finish Ron started talking again, "Well if it makes you feel any better, you're not the first ones that Eric Rotham has done this to. Well you might as well junk the Command Wolf too; he's totalled it as well."

The twins suddenly spoke up.

"No we can..."

"Fix it..."

Surprisingly it wasn't Ron that answered this time but the short boy, who had been standing uncomfortably behind Ron and Felix. "Don't bother, if you check the core mainframe, you will find a practically nasty Trojan virus. It's designed to activate when the weapons systems come online. Hard to totally remove without destroying the core, it's easier to junk the zoid and get another."

Everyone just looked at the boy, his skin was darker than Monique's, and he couldn't have been older than the twins. Ron saw everyone looking at the boy, but seemed confused for a second, and then the proverbial light bulb went on.

"Oh everybody this is Wade Load, he's my tech expert. He keeps my zoid's running, and modifies them. Wade this is ummm, everybody. I think?"

Felix just chuckled, "Yes this is everybody, you've meet Kim and Monique."

"Yes I remember them." Ron answered with a smile

Monique stuck her hand out, "Hi Ron, I hope we didn't scare you earlier."

"Nooo, heh heh no, it's all good." He replied while shaking hands. Kim just stared at Ron, making him nervous.

"Up on the Command Wolf are Kim's little brothers Tim and Jim."

The twins didn't so much as look up, they had computers hooked up to the Wolfs mainframe and mutters of He's right, can you delete, nope not working, then, nope…could be heard coming from their general direction.

"And these are the Drs Possible, the owner's and manager of the team."

Ron stuck his hand out to greet the Drs, "It's a pleasure to meet you Mr and Mrs um Dr uh P…"

Mr Dr P shook Ron's hand looking at him sternly, Mrs Dr P also shook his hand with a big smile on her face, "It's a pleasure to meet you Unstoppable, Felix has told us a lot about you."

"Ummm all good I hope. Otherwise it wasn't me and I have witnesses to prove it."

Before anyone could say anything at that statement, Felix concluded the introductions. "Everyone this is Ron Unstoppable."

"Why."

Everyone looked at Kim.

"Huh?"

"Why what Kimmie Cub."

"Why did Eric do this, what would he get out of it?"

Ron just shrugged his shoulders, "He's a recruiter, that's his job."

"A recruiter, you expect me to believe that. Who's he recruiting for?"

Ron looked down at the ground for a couple of seconds, he wasn't much good at confrontations, he preferred to avoid them when possible. He wasn't going to be given much choice here. Kim grabbed him by the shoulders, forcing him to look at her.

"Nothing to say, you just thought you could slander Eric and get away with it."

"The Backdraft… he works for the Backdraft group."

Kim let Ron go and took a sudden step back, "Liar, the Backdraft were destroyed eleven years ago when they tried to takeover in the Royal Cup."

"They were hurt, yes. But they weren't destroyed. The lost a lot of assets, but none of the council of seven was captured. That's when the recruiters started. They would bankrupt teams and force them to work for the Backdraft to get out of debt. This team is just the latest in a line of teams that Eric has done this to over the years. I can give you a list if you want?"

Kim just shook her head, tears starting to come to her eyes. She couldn't believe it, how? "He can't be recruiting for the Backdraft, you said he's been doing it for years. He can't have, he's only 18."

"Sorry that's another lie, he's 24."

Kim looked at Ron, he was nervous under her gaze, but he was totally sincere in what he had just said. Kim just knew that he had told her the truth; she had been set up all along. Eric had played on the fact that she was crushing on him to get on the team, so he could recruit them. Kim just shook her head; she couldn't believe this was happening. She suddenly bolted out the hanger doors not looking at where she was going, almost knocking Ron and Wade over in the process.

Mrs Dr P watched as Kim ran out of the hanger, what surprised her was the fact that Ron was only a couple of steps behind her trying to catch her. Even after her giving him the third degree like that. Somehow though she knew that Ron would be able to calm Kim down, Mr Dr P on the other hand was about to rush out as well. Mrs Dr P just placed a hand on her husband's forearm. "Just give them a couple of minutes, and let Ron calm Kim down."

"_Damn, guess there's another one I won't be getting_." Monique muttered.

ZNCP

Kim ran outside into the sunlight, once outside she stopped after a hundred meters not really knowing where she was going to go. She was almost bowled over by Ron, who wasn't expecting Kim to stop.

Kim snapped at Ron, "What do you want, haven't you done enough damage?"

"I'm sorry Kim; I didn't mean to upset you. But it is the truth, I promise."

"You don't get it, he said he liked me. Really liked me, liked me. I thought that maybe…"

"Kim I'm sorry but it was a lie, it's what he does. He lies and destroys to get his own way, it's who he is. I'm sorry he played you, but you're better than him."

Ron moved closer and gave put his hand on Kim's shoulder to comfort her, Kim started to relax after a minute.

"I use to think that I could do anything, in fact I use to brag about it. My catch phrase was 'I can do anything,' guess I can't do anything not even pick a proper boyfriend." Kim was wiping the tears out of her eyes with the back of her hand.

Ron let loose with a grin at Kim, "Well, if you can do anything, it stands to reason that you can even pick a bad boyfriend."

For some reason the big goofy grin that Ron levelled at Kim made her feel much better.

"So, you really think I'm better than him? I'm not just a shallow bitch that only judges on looks."

"Nooo, you're a beautiful young women who deserves nothing but the best. If he's too stupid to see that, then it's his loss."

Then as if he thought that he had said something wrong Ron suddenly started rambling, "Not that I'm trying to hit on you or anything. Because I'm not… not that you aren't beautiful or anything, because you are, anyone would be lucky to have you as a girlfriend. I know that I would be lucky to have you as a girlfriend, not that I'm suggesting anything. You know how it, umm I'm just going to shut up now ok."

Kim just looked at Ron, his rambling had calmed her down, and she did understand what he had been trying to say before he got self conscious. She just chuckled as she continued to look at Ron. "Your weird, but I like you."

For some reason those words kicked up a sense of déjà vu in Kim.

"Um thanks, I think. Hey do you want to see her."

"Her… her who." Kim said frowning

"The zoid you're going to be piloting. You'll like her; she's a red head to."

Kim had completely forgotten that she would have to pilot a different zoid; she wondered what types of zoid's Ron had.

"We should get all the others here so that they can see the zoid's as well."

She turned to head back to the hanger, just to stop in her tracks as she saw the rest of her family and team just standing there watching them. Ron started to rub the back of his neck nervously.

"Hey guys your just in time, Ron was about to show me errr us the zoid's."

Monique came up smiling, "Cool what have you got baby boy."

"For you Monique, something that will give you more bang for your buck."

Ron pulled a remote out of his pocket and aimed it at the head of the Hover Cargo. The front hatch lifted up to reveal a Dibison, Monique just looked at it. There was something slightly different about this Dibison from her previous one; she just couldn't put her finger on it.

Wade spoke up, "You'll note the more rounded armour on the Dibison, it gives it decreased drag. Coupled with modifications in the actuators and heat sinks it is now capable of speeds of 175Kph."

Monique just whistled, "That's over 40Kph faster than a Dibison's top speed."

"Yes the main problem with the Dibison has always been its top speed, aside from rounding the armour, all weapons are standard. The only other modification is it has an updated BEEK AI in it to aid in targeting and tracking."

"Nice" Monique smiled; the BEEK AI was boasted to be almost as good as having an Organoid system onboard.

Ron closed up the head of the Hover Cargo, and everyone headed around to the side entrance in the shell. Once inside Ron led them to the zoid bay. The first zoid that Kim saw was a sleek black and gold four legged zoid on the bottom tier. She didn't know why but she instantly felt a connection with the zoid.

"Is that a Shadow Fox?"

"Yeah, for all the good that it does me."

"Huh how's that Ron?"

"He won't let anyone pilot him. So he just sits there gathering dust. Anyway, let's see"

Checking that everyone was on the lift platform Ron raised it up to the second tier where a familiar blue Shield Liger was sitting.

"Ah the Shield Liger, DCS-J model, this is yours Felix. I'm sure you'll be familiar with the modifications."

"If I remember correctly, enhanced shield generator, increased power to the weapons for that extra kick and a higher top speed of 290Kph."

"All the cockpit modifications are the same as well Felix, right that just leaves Kim's ride."

Raising the platform to the top tier, they came to the last zoid.

"A Lighting Saix, Ron she's beautiful." Kim gushed as she looked at the cat like zoid.

The Saix was completely black, except for the head which was red with green eyes.

"Yeah, I kind of thought it was appropriate given the pilot."

"Oh that's real smooth, Felix you didn't mention your friend was so smooth."

Ron suddenly panicking, and turning as red as Kim's hair "No wait, that's not what I meant."

"Sooo, you're saying I'm not beautiful then Ron?"

"What, no you are beautiful, it's just that I urrrr, um Felix help."

Kim just gave Ron a slap on the shoulder, "Relax Ron I'm just kidding. So what's she capable of."

"Well we couldn't do anything to the weapons due to them being connected to the boosters and they need to stay fixed for stability. So we upped the speed, top speed is now 340Kph and mach 1.25 with boosters. Not as fast as a Zeekdober, but close enough."

Mrs Possible was watching the kids, and how they seemed to just accept Ron into their midst without qualms. Eric had been with the team for a year, and none of them had been this relaxed around him. Even Kim had been on edge, trying too hard to please Eric, while with Ron he just seemed to fit. Weather it was his easy going nature or his wide open guileless face, she didn't know. At the end he just fit, as if he had always been there. She just smiled as she listened to the ongoing conversation.

"Hang on if no-one can pilot the Shadow Fox, what zoid are you going to pilot Ron?"

"Uh uh, it's a surprise Kim."

"What do you mean 'it's a surprise', we need to know if we're to work together as a team."

"I'll show you later, trust me it'll be badical."

"But Roooon, I neeeed to know. Pleassse tell me." Kim pleaded.

Mrs Dr P's eyebrow rose at that, Kim had never used that tone of voice on anyone outside of family. She had certainly never used it on any boys she had dated. Although there had been one boy, but that had been ten years ago.

Felix suddenly looked very excited, "You got Rufus running didn't you. How is he, how does he handle."

"Yeah Felix, Rufus is up and running at full capacity. I've never driven a zoid like him before, he handles.... badical."

"Rufus, who.... what is a Rufus." Kim asked. She had never heard of any zoid called a Rufus before.

"Rufus is an extremely rare zoid that Ron found and has been fixing up as long as I've known him. That he's finally finished, man I've got to see him." Felix answered

"Later Felix, you'll see him later."

"But Rooon, can't we see him now?" Then Kim did something Mrs Dr P had never seen Kim do outside of family, she unleashed the puppy dog pout on Ron, "Pleasssse."

Ron lasted all of half a second before he caved, "Ahhh what is that, all right, all right, put it away, we'll go see Rufus. He's in the maintenance area"

Mrs Dr P didn't know what was more amazing, the fact that Kim was so relaxed around someone she had just met, or that she was acting so........child like with him. She wasn't pleased however that she seemed to be wrapping Ron around her little finger, she would have to keep an eye on that.

Ron lowered the platform down and led the way into the maintenance area, "Ok Rufus is basically the equailivent of a Liger Zero. He is based on a wild zoid, so his weapons are minimal. He does however, have all of a Liger Zeros capabilities."

Arriving in the maintenance bay they were confronted by a very unusual looking zoid, it stood at 7.5meters high and 25meters long, rat like in appearance with rounded armour. Long yellow front teeth and claws front and rear, otherwise it had no visible armaments. Mr Dr P was visibly excited when he saw the zoid, "Is that a _Heterocephalus Motownus_, I thought they were all destroyed. He's a beauty, what's he capable of Ronald?"

"Well he's not quite as fast as a Liger Zero, but he is stronger and more agile. Top speed of 300Kph, four strike laser claws, laser fangs, AZ 108 mm High-Density Beam Guns in the forearms, Ion Turbo Booster Unit at the hind quarters with downforce Stabilizers and he's CAS compatible." Ron was beaming as he gave the stats, he was obviously proud of the zoid.

Kim just continued to stare at the zoid, in truth she had seen nothing like it. While everyone else crowed in to get better looks, with the twins instantly climbing all over Rufus.

"Ahhh, Kim… hello Kim you in there in."

"It's pink, why is it pink?"

Ron just shrugged his shoulders, "That's his base colour."

"Why the forearm guns, I would have thought an AZ 208 mm Double-Barrelled Shock Cannon on his chest would be more appropriate."

"It would have been, but once Rufus goes bipedal it's rendered useless."

"Rufus can go bipedal; I thought only Bear Fighters could do that… Well he is defiantly unique Ron… He's Spankin. How much faster is he with the boosters?"

"About another 30Kph faster. Well, while everybody's here, I might as well show you the living quarters in the Cargo."

Heading out of the maintenance bay Ron moved to the back of the shell to the living quarters. Moving in through the bottom floor of the quarter's section, Ron motioned to the door on the first floor.

"This is Wade's area, usually a no go area due to all the equipment he has in there."

Ron then proceeded up to the next floor where there were five doors.

"We have four double rooms, all empty of course, plus the communal shower and bathroom…"

"COMMUNAL!!! We have to share the bathroom, no way. I love you all but no way am I sharing."

"Chill Monique, it's so not the drama, we set up a timetable and it will be fine. No big."

"But nine of us through the bathroom, we'll be so limited on time." Monique pouted.

"Wade has a bathroom down stairs that he will be using…."

"See Monique, eight isn't so bad." Kim continued

"… and the rooms upstairs have ensuite, which are mine and the Dr's P." finished Ron.

"ENSUITE, you have your own ensuite, that is soooo not fair. How come you get a room with ensuite?" Kim pouted

"Because he owns the Hover Cargo Kimmie, I'll make up a schedule for the five of you to use the bathroom later. Now Ron how are the kitchen facilities in here."

"You'll find them more than adequate for all your cooking needs; it's on the top floor with the rec area. If you follow me..."

Ron then proceeded to lead them up to the next floor where he briefly pointed out the empty room to the Drs P.

"My rooms on the left, right will be yours."

He then continued to head up to the living area. Kim, instead of following stopped at the top bedroom level and waited for everyone to follow Ron up. She then turned towards the left door. She had taken just a couple of steps when she felt a hand on her shoulder, causing her to jump.

"WYD girl."

Kim looked slightly guilty, "Nothing Mon."

"Nothing huh. If you're up to nothing, then why are you heading towards Ron's room?"

"Just wondering what type of amenities he has."

"That girl is none of our business."

"But aren't you curious Mon?"

"Nope and neither should you be."

"But think of it Mon, instead of a timetable for five, we could have a timetable for four, or two, if you and me were to share this one."

Monique's stance visibly weakend with the thought of not having to share a bathroom with anyone but Kim. "Well maybe a quick peak..."

Kim grabbed Monique's arm and dragged her towards Ron's room, where she threw the door open and stepped in. While not a large room it was roomy, given space considerations for the Hover Cargo. She paused to look around the room, while not tidy, it wasn't dirty. There were clothes piled up in a corner around a laundry basket, with posters on the walls of various famous zoid pilot's and zoid models around the room. What surprised Kim the most was the bookcase off to the side of the double bed, she wandered over to have a look at what books Ron had in his collection. Kim had a quick read of some of the titles that Ron had, and was blown away. She didn't know what to expect, but she wasn't expecting what she saw. There were books on tactics that were standard reading at the Academy, plus others that she hadn't seen before that looked more advanced than any she had read. What surprised her the most were the history books, both on past wars and famous pilots throughout the years as well as books on ancient zoidians. What really intrigued her were the geology and archaeology books.

"Not what I would have expected him to be reading." Monique said just over Kim's shoulder.

Kim jumped, not expecting Monique to be so close to her. "I know Mon, some of these tactic's book's I've never even heard of. And what's with these book's..." Kim said pointing at the other books.

"Our Mr Unstoppable is a mystery on so many level's, some deep reading material. Yet still seems to be a fun loving, relaxed individual. Able to get red head's hot under the collar."

"I don't know what you're talking about Mon."

"Girl you never acted around Josh and Eric, the way you are around Ron."

"What, I'm just trying to make him feel welcome. Especially after how I treated him earlier…besides, for some reason he feels…..familiar, like I've known him for a while."

'Uh huh, riiiight."

"Come on, let's check out the bathroom."

Kim headed over to the ensuite to have a quick look, it was a moderate sized bathroom kept very clean. After looking for a couple of seconds she headed out of Ron's room, pulling Monique after her.

"Hey, what's the rush; I didn't have a chance to look at the bathroom."

"It's a nice enough bathroom, if you've seen one, you've seen them all."

"Uh huh, more like you just wanted to check out the boy some."

Kim didn't answer Monique; she just dashed up the stairs to the living area so Monique wouldn't see the faint blush on her cheeks. When she arrived in the room Felix was just moving off through a door slightly away from the stairs.

"What's through there Felix?"

"It's the lift Kim, if you had been paying attention and not snooping around you would know that. Ron's not Eric, Kim."

"I know that Felix, it's just that, welllll…"

"Relax Kim, he's a good guy who'd go to the wall for you."

Mrs Dr P came up to the girls with Ron in tow. "Where have you been Kimmie?"

"Ummm, checking out our rooms, umm I call dips on the one to the left of the stairs."

"I've got the one to the left of the bathroom." Called Monique.

"Guess that leaves me the room next to the elevator, which is fine by me, as it's the one I normally use anyway." Chimed in Felix

"That leaves the last one for the tweebs."

"Actually Kim, Wade suggested that Tim and Jim use the pilots quarters under the bridge. There's also a bathroom they can use there. Wade's taken them and your father through to the bridge to show them the controls and bridge layouts."

"The tweebs are going to be piloting the Hover Cargo? I think I'll walk."

"Kimmie, Wade and your father will be piloting, the twins will be on tactical."

Kim suppressed a shiver, the twins with weapons; the resulting destruction didn't bear thinking about.

"Ok… what's the sitch for now?"

Ron spoke up, "Well I thought while you move in, I'd register that I'm working for the team now. Then after that I thought we could take the zoids for a run, and keep running till the Cargo catches up. That way you'll get a feel for your new zoids."

"Sounds like a plan, but I'll help with the registration process."

ZNCP

Monique and Felix had headed out in their zoid's shortly after they had moved their gear into their rooms. As the Dibison and Shield Liger were slower than the Hover Cargo, they would be picked up once it caught up with them. Ron and Kim in the faster zoid's were launching later and would run no more than a hour further after catching up with Monique.

Kim was sitting in the cockpit of the Lightning Saix, familiarizing herself with the controls as it moved into lunch position on the magnetic launch rail. All the while she couldn't shake the feeling that she knew Ron from somewhere, and to name a zoid Rufus, although that to was familiar. Where had she heard that name before, something was nagging at her from her past something....

'_My imaginary friend Rufus, he's really big....'_

"You ready there Kimmie cub?"

"Huh, ummm yeah daddy, I'm all set." Kim's train of thought disrupted, she looked around finding the Saix on the launch rail. It had gotten itself in position and was awaiting launch.

Wade's voice came in over her comm. System. "Ok Kim, ready when you are. For your first launch we'll aim to land you a couple hundred meters in front of the Hover Cargo. When you're ready."

Kim braced herself, she knew what was going to happen, it had been covered at the Academy. She had just never launched from a Hover Cargo before.

'_Can't be too hard if Ron and Felix can do it'_

Kim looked at the com screen, "Ok Wade, launch."

Kim was forced back into her seat as the Saix shot down the rail, with the zoid being flung off the end. The Saix arched up and came down landing with a jolt; Kim was thrown forward against her restraints as the Saix skidded to a holt. Rubbing her chest, she half turned the zoid towards the Hove Cargo where she could see Rufus already in position to launch.

Activating the comms Kim contacted the bridge "See, no big....."

Kims transmission was cut off by Ron, "Wade, ROCKETS ARE GOOOOOO!"

Rufus was flung down the rail and tossed off the end, where he sailed way over the Saix with a might roar of "Cheeessse" before landing smoothly going straight into a run, way in front of Kim.

'_Cheese, what type of roar was cheese?'_

"You'll have to do better than that Kim if you want to win, come on, see if you can catch me. If you're up to it..."

Ron's voice teased over the comms, no not Ron. This voice was confident, aggressive, this was Unstoppable. With a grin on her face she started to give chase.

ZNCP

Felix had left after Monique, but caught up easily enough due to his superior speed. He had just been cruising with Monique, moving the Liger around the Dibison and re-familiarizing himself with the controls.

"You ok in there Felix? You're being quiet, what's up?"

Monique's voice broke into Felix's cockpit, "Huh, no I'm fine, just thinking."

"Uh huh, What about?" Monique's voice came back over the comms.

"Not much, just about the team and what's happening." Felix answered, still not really paying attention to what was going on.

Monique was wondering what was really going on with Felix, usually he was talking a mile a minute. "Come on what's really going on in that head of yours. The last time you were this quiet, was when Kim hired Eric. What was that about anyway, you didn't like Eric from the start."

Felix, finally paying attention to Monique, just gave a snort when Eric was mentioned. "Ron had already warned me about Eric, and not to trust him. Seems he's had dealings with Eric before. As for what's going on welll. Monique does Kim seem to be acting weird to you?"

"Weird? In what way?" Though from her tone, Felix could tell that Monique had noticed Kim's behavioural change.

"Come on Monique, you saw her in the Cargo. When has she ever done that, especially around a boy? With Josh she could barely string two words together, Eric she was blind to everything... I just hope she's not trying to set Ron up." Felix frowned, it wouldn't be past Kim. After all when it came to competition, Kim was in it to win. Even against team mates.

"Maybe she's just trying to be nice to the guy, especially after the rough start." Monique answered.

"You really believe th…" Felix was interrupted by sounds of giggles coming over the comms.

Felix turned the Liger around, and Monique came up on the left of him. A dust cloud in the distance was coming towards them, getting closer with the shapes of Rufus and the Saix becoming visible. Over the comms the giggling was interspersed with snatches of, You're it, Can't catch me, Nah nah missed me… coming through. With the zoids becoming more visible you could see them jumping and weaving around. While the Lighting Saix clearly had the advantage with speed, Rufus made up for the speed with far superior maneuverability and agility. Where Kim would try to use her speed to her advantage, Ron would jump over, spin around and generally dance around her in Rufus. Just as they were approaching Felix and Monique, Kim managed to just tag Ron. She then used a burst of speed to pull away and pull the Saix in behind the Dibison and Liger, before stopping there. Rufus didn't even pause in his approach to the zoid's and at the last possible second he jumped over the two, using his ion boosters to give him a boost over. Landing behind the Saix, where a visible slap of Rufus's paw against the Saix's behind was seen. Without pause Rufus carried on running with his boosters on full, he could be seen disappearing in the distance.

Kim could clearly be heard over the comms, "Oh you so did not just do what I think you did. You are in for it now Mr…" as she turned the Saix after Ron, within a couple of steps she had activated the boosters and rocketed after Rufus.

Monique was left flabbergasted at that display, it was so un-Kim-like. It took her a couple of minutes to get herself together and she looked at Felix through the comm. Screen. Judging by his expression he was equally stunned by the display.

"No, nothing out of the ordinary with Kim, she's the same as always." Monique sent to Felix.

Felix just raised his eyebrow, "Uh huh, nothing out of the norm. Sooo… would you call that frolicking or romping?"

ZNCP

After running for a couple of hours in the Saix, Kim was looking forward to a shower and some food. She had parked the Saix in the maintenance bay, where it would be rotated up into the launch stack so Ron could park Rufus. She gave the Saix a quick check before heading up to her room. She was very impressed with the Saix; it had good maneuverability for the speed. Not as good as a Liger Zero in the Jager armor, but definitely better than a Zeekdober.

Reaching her room she ducked in and grabbed a change of clothes, towel and her toiletries. Heading to the bathroom she found the door locked. Banging on the door, Kim demanded to be let in.

Monique's voice came back from inside, "Wait your patience girl, I'm in here."

"But I want a shower Mon."

"Well you're going to have to wait, I won't be long." Monique's voice came back.

Kim pouted, this just wouldn't do, she wanted a shower and to get out of her combat clothes. '_Now what am I to do……'_

Just then Ron came into view heading up the stairs towards his room.

"Hey Kim, that was a good run."

Then he carried on up to the next floor.

'_Hmmm, I wonder…'_

ZNCP

Mrs Dr P was in the Kitchen going through the cupboards, seeing what was in stock. She was genuinely impressed, not only was it well stocked, but it had a very impressive setup. With only the best equipment, if she didn't know better she would have thought that she was in a restaurant kitchen. Someone had to be able to cook to use all this equipment, she was a good cook, but even she wouldn't use all this gear.

Just then Ron came into the kitchen.

Mrs. Dr P looked at him, "I thought that you would be having a shower Ron?"

Ron quickly looked over to Mrs. Dr P "I've had a quick one, didn't take too long." He then proceeded to get food and equipment out

"Do you know where Kim is Ron."

"I think she's in the shower Mrs Dr P, at least she was outside the door when I saw her last. So it would stand to reason that she's having one. Unless the showers occupied, then she could be in her room. Unless she decided to check out the briefing room, cause you know she could be doing that to." Ron answered as he started to make himself a couple of chicken wraps, with all the works.

Mrs Dr P just smiled at Ron's ramble, "So you don't know where she is?"

"At this precise moment, no, but she should be easy to find."

"How so Ron?"

"We could use the internal comms; it's on the wall next to the door. Every room has one." Ron pointed to the unit on the wall as he answered.

"Right."

Looking to change the subject, Mrs. Dr P thought now would be a good time to ask about the Kitchen. "You have a lot of equipment here Ron, you like to cook?"

"Yeah well, I like to eat, and Wade's not too good in the kitchen. Plus it helps me relieve stress. As long as I can remember, well since I was young, I've liked to cook."

"Let me guess Ron, when you were eight, your mom got you a Granny Crocket Quickie-Bake Mixer and Oven set, and the rest was history." Mrs Dr P joked at Ron

Ron's response was not what Mrs Dr P was expecting; Ron looked like he had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, as he turned towards her looking guilty.

"Ummm actually she did, how did you know that? I've never told anyone that."

Mrs Dr P just smiled, "Ron I was just kidding."

Ron finishing up his wraps, placed the plate they were on, onto a tray, he then got a soda out of the fridge, and went over to a cake container and got the final slice of cake in it out.

"Is that Seven Layers of Heaven Ron?"

"Ah yep yep, you heard of it?" Ron said beaming.

"Yes, if I were you Ron, I would hide that."

Just then Mr Dr P's voice was heard from the comm. Unit, "Ron do you mind if I go over some of Rufus's specs with you, if you're free that is."

Ron put his meal to the side and covered it, and headed over to the comm. Unit and let Mr Dr P know that he would be right down.

Mrs Dr P just shook her head as Ron left, shocked at Ron's answer.

'_It can't be can it, but then again Ron would be about the right age. I'll have a talk with the boys and see if they can do some de-ageing of a picture._'

She then headed into the rec area herself, stopping at the comm. Unit briefly to call Kim up to get some food.

In the rec area Felix was playing games on the big screen, she decided to go up front and talk to the boys and see if they could de-age a picture of Ron. Mr Dr P was down in the maintenance bay going over Rufus, and would no doubt be there for a while engrossed in the zoid. Heading out the door she passed Monique on her way in.

ZNCP

Monique made her way into the rec room, and plopped down onto the sofa dropping a bag beside her. Felix barely glanced in her direction he was so absorbed in his game, it looked like some sort of zoid game.

"What you playing Felix?"

"Zoid wars eighteen."

"Haven't you finished that already?"

"Nah that was Zoid wars seventeen."

Monique just raised an eyebrow, zoid wars seventeen, eighteen, "What's the difference?"

Pausing the game, Felix turned around to look at Monique, giving her a look that clearly thought she was insane for not knowing the difference. "Eighteen has better graphics, different storyline and you can match up pilots from different eras. Like Van Flyheight against Bit Cloud."

"Don't give me that look boy; it's a game where you run around in a zoid. Like you don't do that enough now... Speaking of running around, what was with Unstoppable today."

Felix smiled, "Zoid tag, we used to do it all the time when we were on the team. Ron thinks it's a good way to bond with your zoid. I was just surprised that Kim was playing."

"Why would that be Felix?" Kim's voice made both Monique and Felix jump, neither had noticed her come into the rec room.

Felix looked up and Kim, she was still towelling off her hair, wearing cargos with a pink crop top. "Because it was fun when we played tag, you've never had fun in a zoid before in your life."

Kim snorted at Felix, "You were the one who told me to 'stop and listen' to Ron. Now you tell me you're offended that I am. Yes today was fun in the zoid's, and I can see where Ron's coming from with the bond thing. I feel I know more about the Saix from that three hour run, than about the Wolf. And I piloted that for two years."

Monique looked impressed, "Really, if that's the case, maybe we should do it tomorrow."

"I'm sure we'll have time to do that Monique. Mom said something about food?"

Felix pointed Kim towards the kitchen and watched as she headed in. He was about to turn back to his game when he heard Kim let out a squeal of delight from the kitchen. She came back out of the kitchen a couple of seconds later carrying a tray of food. Walking over to the sofa, she placed the tray on the coffee table.

"Mom's really outdone herself with these wraps and the Seven Layers of Heaven, I thought we were out." Kim was practically drooling over the food.

"Are you sure that's for you Kim?" Felix asked with some concern.

"Mom called me up to eat, and this was in the kitchen. So she must have made it for me Felix." Kim took a bite out of one of the wraps, "Ohhh, this is great, you should try one Mon, I'm not going to be able to finish both."

Passing a wrap over to Monique, Kim noticed the bag next to her. "What's in the bag Mon?"

Monique picked the bag up and passed it to Kim, It was a Club Banana shopping bag. "Don't know. I found it in my room. I thought it was yours."

"Not mine Mon; I haven't done any shopping in a couple of weeks." Putting her wrap down, Kim wiped her hands on a napkin before opening the bag and taking out a sky blue micro bikini from the bag. "Def not mine, not my colour or style."

"Something the boy picked up for a friend perhaps?" Monique winked and nudged Kim with the remark. Kim just ignored her and continued to eat her wrap.

Monique and Kim ate in silence for a few minutes, enjoying the wraps, while Felix had resumed his game.

Kim was intrigued about the Books in Ron's room and wondered if Felix knew anything about them. "Hey Felix....FELIX."

"What Kim?" Felix answered over his shoulder.

"Your friend has an interesting collection of books, what's that about?"

"Gee I don't know Kim, think he could be looking for a way to entertain himself out here. After all he doesn't have a lot of company outside of Wade, and you can only play video games so much before they get boring." Felix threw over his shoulder at Kim as he again paused his game and turned towards the girls.

"Fair enough Felix, I was just wondering about the geology and archaeology stuff."

Frowning Felix replied "I don't know it's a hobby he picked up somewhere. He's been doing it as long as I've known him. He'll just take off from time to time to check out sites of interest. He usually tells everyone he's going for a run in a zoid, and goes out for two to three days."

Kim was intrigued, "And he just takes off like that with no warning?"

"Nah, there's usually an emotional trigger that will set him off. I think most of it's to clear his head."

Kim, having finished her wrap, picked up the cake and was preparing to eat it when Mrs Dr P came back into the rec room. Kim looked over to her mother, "Mom you did a great job on those wraps, you should do them more often."

"Wraps? Kimmie I didn't make..."

Just then Ron came crashing into the room moving through to the kitchen.

"Felix, what is up with that boy and the stairs?"

Chuckling Felix answered, "We had a bet going about eighteen months ago, where the person with the lowest score on zombie mayhem wasn't allowed to use the elevator. Ron lost, though to be fair, I think he threw the game so Tara wouldn't have to do the running."

Before anyone could comment, Ron came back in from the kitchen. "Has anyone seen my wr…." Looking in Kim's direction, he noticed her eating, "Is that my Seven Layers of Heaven?"

Kim looked around guiltily from the half eaten cake, with a fork in her mouth. "Ummm, noooo. This is my Seven Layers of Heaven?"

"That is my cake!" Ron lunged for the cake, he may have gotten it, except his trousers choose that precise second to drop, tripping him.

Kim jumped up with the cake in hand and ran around the sofa yelling mine, mine, mine, mine, mine. Ron jumped up, pulling his trousers up, ran after her out of the rec room.

After watching the display with the others, Mrs Dr P turned towards Felix, "Well I think Ron is fitting in very nicely Felix."

Felix just grunted, "We'll see Mrs P, We'll see. Kim's in fun mode at the moment, let see what happens when she changes gear to combat mode and finds out that Ron doesn't have any other gear."

Ron came bursting through the door again looking panicked, "Felix hide me."

Ron ran around behind Felix as Kim came bursting through the door. She had chocolate cake all over her face and down her top. She looked seriously pissed. "Roooooooooon! You are so dead."

"Eeep"

Ron backed away from Kim as she marched up to him. Ron hadn't gotten very far before he felt the wall against his back. Kim marched straight up to him, as he was looking around for a way out.

"Any last words Ron."

Ron was in a dangerous saturation with a red headed volcano about to blow. So why he did what he did, he later would never be able to tell anyone.

With Kim just an arms length away, Ron reached up and with his index finger wiped it down her cheek. Covering it with the remains of the cake, he then put it in his mouth.

"Ahhh, yum. It still tastes great." He then just smiled at Kim with a big goofy smile.

Kim just looked at Ron, disbelief on her face that he had just done that. She just continued to look at Ron blinking, when her mother's voice caught her attention.

"That's enough Kim, if you hadn't taken Ron's food this wouldn't have happened. Now go get cleaned up."

Kim turned to follow her mothers dictates, was heard mumbling on her way out.

"Great it's in my hair, now I'll have to wash it again."

Monique leaned over towards Felix as Mrs Dr P headed towards the kitchen. "Does that boy know how close to getting injured he was?"

"Nah, he's just lucky like that." Felix returned.

Ron went over and plopped down on the sofa next to Monique.

Monique decided to tease Ron about the cake; she leaned over and adopted a sultry look. "So Ron, you like chocolate?" She then trailed her fingers up his thigh, "Well I've always liked white chocolate myself."

Ron sat up quickly, "You do? Great, we have some experimental white chocolate Seven Layers of Heaven cake if you want to try it?"

Ron jumped up from the sofa and ran over to the kitchen; Monique just looked after him with disbelief on her face. Felix burst out laughing.

Turning on Felix with annoyance on her face she demanded "What's so funny Felix."

Still chuckling with tears starting to come to his eye he gasped out, "You'll… have…to…try…harder…than…that…Monique. Tara was practically hitting him with a sledge hammer, and he didn't get it. He can be oblivious when it comes to girls."

Monique still annoyed, but intrigued at some gossip. "How oblivious, and Tara?"

"Tara had a huge crush on Ron, and he didn't notice. She was going to hit him with the big guns on the last trip, but didn't get a chance."

"How big a gun, are we talking about, and why not?" Monique was more intrigued now than annoyed.

"You're in her old room, that bikini is hers. She was planning to model it for Ron, to get his attention. Me and Reger found out about it and wouldn't leave Ron alone."

"That is so mean, here she is trying to get Ron's attention and you were looking for a free show. Why would you need a free show anyway?"

Felix chuckled, "For your information Monique, a guy's excited state has nothing to do with nerves. It's all hormonal."

"WTMI Felix."

Then Ron came back into the room with a tray with several pieces of cake on it.

ZNCP

**Next time: Fight, Team Possible vs. ?**

* * *

**1001** - Royal Cup. Held once every 4 years, the Royal Cup allows class A teams to compete for a chance to get into class S. Zoids are not allowed to be used after they reach a system freeze. Competitors must defeat 5 other teams to gain data to progress to a predetermined finish line. Each team cannot use more than 4 Zoids, but there is no limit to the minimum number of Zoids a team can use.

**0973** - No flying Zoids are allowed in this mode. Called "Blind Combat" the battle mode usually has large obstacles on the arena to limit participant's line of sight.

**0982** - This battle mode is the most frequently used. There is no stipulation on weapons or specific Zoids. The only rule is that both teams must fight with the same number of Zoids overall.

**0983** - This mode is much the same as 0982. But is for 3 vs 3 combat.

**0984** – This mode is much the same as 0982. But is for 4 vs 4 combat.

**0988** - Combatants can only use 6 shots of ranged weaponry.

**0992** - There is no restriction on weapons or type of Zoid, but the fight must be a one-on-one battle.

**0990** - Similar to 0999, in that the rules are very open, however this mode is used by the Zoid Battle Commission. As such, there are some rules in place that provide pilot safety.

**0999** - This mode is exclusively used by the Backdraft. There are no rules in this battle mode.

**6690** - Shooting Challenge. This is not a real battle mode, but it's used in arcade video games. Mid-battle entrants are allowed in this mode.

**None** - Effectively the same as battle mode 0999, some backdraft judges have been known to declare battles with no mode.

Heldigunner (TZ, Z2 - Demon Lizard) - Iguana Type

Zeekdober – Doberman Type

Double Sworder - stag beetle type

Elephander - Elephant-type

Shield Liger, Liger Zero – Lion, Tiger cross type

Lightning Saix (pronounced psyche) – Cheetah type

Dibison – Bison type

Hover Cargo – Snail type, one of four transport zoid's. Big

Whale King – whale type, one of four transport zoid's. Flys. Enormous

Gustav - Insect-type (similar to a woodlouse), one of four transport zoid's. Small

Jager armor (pronounced yay-ger) – one of four (six?) armors for the Liger Zero. This is the recon armor for high speed. Boosts The Zero's speed to 340Kph, mach 1.25 with boosters activated.

The CP-04 was created by the Helic Republic to bolster the fire-power of its smaller Zoids. The unit consists of a pair of 250mm beam cannons

_Heterocephalus Motownus_, the common naked mole-rat.


	3. Fight

**Kim Possible: Zoids - New Century.**

_Disclaimer: Disney owns Kim Possible, Tomy owns Zoids, Kim Possible: Zoids – New Century plot line owned by 'Blue Kiwi'._

Thanks to captainkodak1, RSfan, Eddy13, CajunBear73, Wanderer3, soulman3, dex drako, Katsumara, wolfey141, Grey Field, RipBlade for the reviews, hopefully some of your questins about Kim will be answered.

Thanks to Ormagoden for his beta work on this chapter.

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 3: Fight...**

"Ron? _Ron?_ RON?! Argh! How are we supposed to get anything done if we can't even get him up, Monique?"

To say that Kim was feeling tweaked would have been an understatement in Monique's opinion. They both had been trying to get Ron up for about fifteen minutes now, and the best response that they had both gotten out of him was when he had tried to turn off a non-existent alarm clock.

He had then just simply rolled over whilst snorting slightly, and then he went back to sleep...well, that was not entirely true, as he had not woken up in the first place.

Kim was not a happy camper with this situation: it was 7.36am, and her battle briefing was supposed to be at 7.30am _sharp_. Of course, that was when it was supposed to start; everyone was expected to be there at least ten minutes early.

That was the unspoken rule that they -the team- had usually abided by within the past.

Whenever a battle was on the day's agenda, be it at 9am or 9pm, the team had always had a briefing at 7.30am.

This was atypically followed by a thorough maintenance check of all of the zoids.

After this (although it usually depended upon both the distance that had been travelled and if the team were already at the battle area or not), combat drills and practice runs would normally be initiated. Upon the completion of each training drill, a tactical briefing would be called in order to both discuss and refine the previously used tactics and formations, and the resulting feedback would be used in improving the team's cohesiveness within the following drill.

This rigorous and fairly brutal training regime of nonstop drills and briefings usually ended up causing both long and tiring days for the entire team.

Somehow, Monique did not think that this boy ran like that, and that he would have a more 'chilled' and 'relaxed' approach for the upcoming battle...that is, if he was anything like what Felix had said of him and from the observations that had been made of him from within the last day and a half, it certainly seemed to be the case.

Well, good luck to him with convincing Kim to chill out before a battle; she was always a turbocharged ball of energy beforehand.

Monique winced as Ron hit the floor with a reverberating thud, still entangled inside of his blankets; Kim had tried to pull him out of his bed.

This, however, resulted in about as much success as the last ten minutes worth of trying had done: Ron had simply rolled over on the floor whilst clutching the blankets even closer to his body.

"Argh! That's it, I've had enough!" Kim growled as she frustratedly threw her hands up into the air.

Kim shot a glare at Monique. "You know, you could be more help."

"I am being helpful: I'm supervising," Monique calmly retorted. "Ya know, listing what doesn't work at waking him up."

"Humph!"

Kim turned and then stomped towards the bathroom, grabbing an empty cup off of the bedside draws as she made her way past. She then disappeared into the bathroom and a few seconds later, Monique heard the water tap running. Kim then returned with a filled cup in hand.

"Umm, you might want to think about this for a second, Kim!"

Monique was looking concerned; Kim was, if anything, looking more tweaked than she was when the 'cake incident' had occurred. (Yes, it was now being referred to as the 'cake incident': no one had yet told Kim about the experimental white chocolate Seven Layers of Heaven cake that Ron had lurking about somewhere, so she was still aptly pissed off at Ron because she had not gotten to finish 'her' cake).

Kim just looked over at Monique without saying a single word. She then held the cup out high and then, with a calm turn of the wrist, poured the ice cold contents over Ron's sleeping face.

The results were instantaneous.

"Yargh!"

A rudely awoken Ron suddenly attempted to leap up and thus stand up upon his own two feet, but due to his blankets being so tightly wrapped around his own body, all he managed to do was crazily thrash around upon the floor for a few moments. After he had finally managed to free himself from the majority of his own self inflicted blanket prison, he erratically swung his head from side to side and then quickly spluttered, "What- huh-what-huh?"

He quickly noticed that both Monique and Kim were standing over him, with both of them peering down at him. Blinking in confusion at the whole situation, he asked, "Monique? Kim? What's going on? Why am I wet?"

As Ron eased himself up into a sitting position, he accidentally shed the last of the blankets that had been covering his body. He glanced around at his immediate surroundings and then, as if he was just realising it (to which Monique had to admit that he probably _was_ just realizing it), it had finally sunk in that he was now upon the floor.

Blinking, he looked up at the girls once again. Ron realised that neither of them had answered his queries...in fact, both girls were now staring at him, and this was starting to make him feel very nervous. "Ummm, ladies? Hello, ladies? **LADIES!**"

Monique jumped as she had realised that she had been caught staring: it was not as if Ron was naked or anything as he did have a pair of boxers on, but Monique was impressed with the sight none the less.

"_Damn, he does have a tight bod!" _

Ron was still looking confused, and he merely wanted to know what was happening. "While I don't mind being woken by a couple of bon diggity ladies...um, what's with the cold water? And why am I on the floor?"

Kim's cheeks had a faint yet clearly defined blush to them, and she had immediately started to shyly gaze at her own two feet as soon as she had realised that she had been staring at him.

"You're-late-for-the-team-briefing!" she quickly blurted out. Before Ron could even blink, she had turned and then rushed out of the room.

Monique and Ron glanced at Kim's departing form before they both turned to look at one another.

"Huh?"

Monique sighed. "She said, 'You're late for the team briefing'. It started at 7.30."

Ron now just looked even more confused. "Why?"

Monique simply raised an eyebrow at Ron. "Why, what?"

"Why the team briefing, and why at 7.30 in the morning? Why not a more civilised time like 9.00? After all, the battle isn't 'till 11.00."

Monique just sighed once again: she was really starting to wonder if the boy sitting below her really was this dense, or if it was a masquerade of some kind. "The briefing is to go over the opposing team, and what zoids they're using, and how we'll fight them."

Ron looked surprised; judging from his reaction, Monique was starting to wonder if such a thing had ever occurred to him before. His next words however, blew that thought right out of her mind so fast that it made a crack of lightning within a raging thunderstorm look like a dozing snail.

"So, you know who Eric has teamed up with?"

It was Monique's turn to look surprised. "Ummm...no."

Ron just lifted an eyebrow. "So, I repeat: why the briefing?"

"Because we are, now get dressed and get your cute tush over to the briefing room!"

Ron finally got up onto his feet, but instead of yawning or stretching and then turning towards the bathroom like Monique had sort of expected, he had instead turned back towards his bed. As he sleepily trudged a few steps forwards, he shot over his shoulder at Monique, "Well, the briefing sounds like fun, but I have a better idea: how about you go to the briefing and I go back to sleep. Then, at a more civilised time, say 10.00, you give me your crib notes."

Then, with an unceremonious 'thump', he flopped back onto the soft mattress.

Monique just rolled her eyes as she walked up to him. Grabbing Ron by the ear, she yanked upon it and then used the leverage to pull Ron back up onto his feet. She then practically dragged him towards the general direction of his adjoined bathroom. If his ear remained attached or not was up to the now yelping boy. "I've a better idea; you get dressed and join us in hell-uh, I mean, the briefing."

Trailing behind Monique, Ron could not argue, "Oww-oww-oww, Monique, that's my ear!"

"If ya want it to remain your ear, you'll do as you're told. You have five minutes."

And with that, Monique gracefully slung Ron into the bathroom.

"I'll be outside, timing you!" Monique called out as she walked out of the bedroom.

ZNCP

When Monique dragged Ron into the briefing room an exact ten minutes later, Kim was impatiently pacing back and forth at the front of the circular room. Ron and Monique walked around the guard rail and then into the sunken seating section. Ron plopped into one of the seats at the end next to Felix. Monique sat next to him and on the other end of the seating area sat the Drs. P.

Ron greeted Felix and the Drs P, who in turn returned the greeting cheerfully.

Kim was glaring frostily at Ron as he sat: she was not in a good mood. Her entire schedule had been put behind by at least twenty minutes due to Ron lazily sleeping in, but at least he _looked _awake now. Maybe he would pay attention; it was bad enough that they were going into combat with an unknown quality at their side, and the fact that he was not even trained was only going to make things harder.

Oh, he was a talented pilot sure enough: Kim had to give him that, but he went into situations with little to no forethought. He did not plan and he did not pay attention to what others were doing in a battle. Twice yesterday while they were playing 'tag', she had set up the Schubaltz solution. Not once did he use any of the recommended counters to the manoeuvre. True, he did beat it both times, but that seemed more due to luck than actual planning. If he had read the academies tactical books like she had assumed that he had done, then he should have known both the solution and the varying counters that accompanied it.

Kim snapped at Ron after he had sat down. "Ron, for future reference, team briefings are at 7.30 on the day of battle. Make sure you make it on time, as we have drills and tactics after. Time is short, so let's get started."

Ron just shrugged. "Sure, Kim. Just a quick question or two before you start, though."

"What? Come on, make it quick," Kim snapped.

"Well, I was just wondering why 7.30, seems far too early to be thinking straight."

Kim looked offended at that. "7.30 is the recommended time for briefings. It leaves enough time to run drills so everyone knows what they're doing in the coming battle. I don't know how you did it in the past, but this is how we do it in the Academy."

Ron did not even look abashed at Kim's statement: he just continued to grin. "Oh, that's simple, we always briefed the night before a battle, 'cause that way we could sleep on it and if we come up with anything new overnight, we could discuss it the next day before hand."

Felix, with a grin upon his face, turned so that he could wink at Monique. Monique caught the wink and thus because of it, she looked slightly concerned: things were going exactly as Felix had said they would last night.

"_Shit, I can't lose that bet. Nah, Kim will win this discussion, nothing to worry about."_

Ron continued. "As for the drills, sounds tiring and inflexible: why run your pilots ragged before a battle? And if you don't know what each other is doing by now, why are you a team? Not that I think you have anything to worry about there Kim as you set up the Schubaltz solution on the fly twice yesterday easily enough."

Kim was flabbergasted!

"You knew what we were doing, and still didn't do any of the recommended counters. Why?"

Ron did not answer: he just continued to smile goofily at Kim.

Mrs. Dr P., sensing that Kim was about to erupt into a blaze of anger, quickly interjected, "Kimme, maybe you should continue with the briefing?"

Ron quickly sat up. "That brings me to my second question."

Kim sighed; this was going to be a _long _briefing! "What now?!"

"So, do you know who Eric's teamed up with?"

Kim just silently stared at Ron for a few tense moments. Finally, she softly answered, "No, we don't."

"Then why are we here?"

"We are here to go over how Eric will respond to our attacks in the Command Wolf," Kim replied very slowly to Ron in exasperation.

Ron, however, just shook his head. "Eric doesn't use a Wolf: he pilot's a Saix. As for how he's going to react, that's easy."

Ron turned to Felix on his right, and then addressed him. "Felix, what's the recommended counter to an overhead Strike Laser Claw strike?"

Felix simply shrugged. "That's easy: sit the zoid back, wait for the enemy zoid to drop down and blast him. If done correctly, your shot will get the zoid in the chest at point blank range, freezing his system."

Ron nodded and then turned back to face Kim. "There ya go, that's what Eric's going to do when I give him the claw."

Kim just stared at Ron for a couple of seconds before snorting, "I see three problems with that. One, it isn't assured that Eric will do that counter to the strike. Two, Eric was using a Command Wolf with this team, so of course he will use a Command Wolf. And three, who said that you will be the one taking on Eric?"

Ron leaned back into the seat and then hooked his hands up behind his head. "Kim, Kim, Kim, of course Eric will do the counter: it's in the book that it's the proper and correct counter manoeuvre, and let's face it, Eric hasn't had a original thought in his entire life. If it's not in the book, he won't do it."

The unsaid and implied finish of "just like you" was clearly heard by everyone inside of the room. Kim herself just glared at Ron, preparing to blast him at that statement, whilst Ron just continued onwards.

Ron looked at Kim for a second before inquiring, "You drove the Wolf back at the compound?"

Kim nodded.

"Ah, that explains that then. Eric piloted the same zoid as you to create common ground in order to get to know you. He'll be back in the Saix for the battle."

Everyone gasped aloud at the depths that Eric would go to in order to both get close to and to get on to the team.

"As for three, didn't Felix tell you? Part of the deal for my help is that I get Eric."

Kim looked at Ron in surprise at that statement before she turned to give Felix her best death glare. Speaking through clenched teeth, she addressed Ron, but her intense gaze never left Felix's now slightly unsettled face. "No. Felix forgot to mention that."

Felix squirmed into his chair whilst he was under Kim's glare. "Gee, thanks for getting me in trouble," he shot at Ron under his breath.

Kim returned her gaze to Ron. "Regardless of what Felix said, he didn't have the authority to make that deal. I'm team leader. Eric's **mine**."

"Nah, you're too emotionally involved, Eric's mine," Ron casually shot back.

Kim placed her hands onto her hips and it was clear that she was getting more and more tweaked by each passing second. "Ron, I'm team leader, what I say goes. I'm taking on Eric, and that's final. We attack according to my plan: that too is final. If you have problems with that, well gee, tough."

Ron leaned forward in his seat, bringing his hands forward and then resting them upon his knees. Leaning forward upon them, he calmly stared at Kim, whilst she in turn simply glared at him, breathing hard.

After a minute or so, Ron spoke.

"Okay, fair enough that Felix didn't have the authority to approve of the deal. How about this, then? A bet. Nice and simple. If you win, the Hover Cargo and all the zoids within, excluding Rufus, are yours free and clear. Win or lose, that will set your team up."

Ron paused so that what he was saying could clearly sink in. Judging from both Kim's expression and how the way her eyes had quickly widened at the news, it was obvious that she clearly understood the full implications of what exactly Ron was offering: even if they still lost the upcoming battle, they still would not be screwed. They would be able to sell the unneeded zoids, and be able to continue to function as a team.

Ron continued onwards. "But, if I win the bet, Eric is mine and we attack my way."

Kim simply snorted at the idea. "If we lose doing it your way, no, I should say, **when** we lose, what then?"

Ron simply shrugged. "Then I pay all the team's debts off."

Everyone inside of the room gasped, and Kim's eyes widened. Monique turned to Ron with sheer astonishment gracing her face. "You have the money to do that? How?"

Giving Monique a quick glance before he looked back at Kim, Ron calmly muttered, "Over the last three years, Monique, I've been in, and won, over two hundred battles. Of which, I only had a team for about sixty of them. The last year, all my battles have been in class A where the prize money is six times the amount of class C."

"Whoa! That's a lot of money," Monique muttered.

"Yeah, well, I own all the zoids I have. Don't owe any money to anyone, and don't have a team to pay. Me 'n' Wade don't need much, so the money's just sitting in the bank, doing nothing."

Mrs. Dr. P. chose that moment to speak up. "Ron, while we appreciate the offer, we can't accept your money like that."

"That's right, hard work and dedication have gotten us this far," Kim proudly (or, perhaps, arrogantly) added.

Ron smirked and then chuckled, "Yeah, at the bottom of class C."

Ron tentatively held his breath after that; that last statement would either cause Kim to physically attack him and thus put him in hospital (or worse), or it would cause her to take the bait and then agree to the proposed bet. He was not goading her to simply be cruel, he was trying to get Kim to adjust her currently rigid way of thinking when it came to zoid battles. And the only way that he knew how to get that to work was to challenge her...and he hated doing that. He was not good at it at all.

He prayed that it would work, and that it instead would not get him brutally killed by the possibly soon to be enraged, auburn haired valkyrie standing tall before him.

Kim just gasped in surprise at his statement; she could not believe what Ron had just said! Judging from the looks upon everyone else's faces, they could not believe it either.

"Oh, you are so on! If you lose...no, **when** you lose, the hover cargo and all the zoids within, including Rufus, are Team Possible's...plus, you pay off all of our debts," Kim shot at Ron.

Ron just merely raised his eyebrow at the increased stakes. "I win, we do things my way and Eric's mine?"

Kim paused, and then added, "Yes. Now, what's the bet?"

Ron smirked. "I have five minutes to find out who Eric's working with, what zoid he's using. Wolf or Saix, and what his game plan is."

Kim could not believe what she was hearing! She had been calling around everyone that she knew in order to try and get that information! She had been working hard all week upon that task, and now Ron thought he could do it in just _five_ minutes? No way could he do it! Not if she could not!

"Oh, this is too easy, Ron! You're on, and your time starts now."

Ron simply leaned back into his seat and once again hooked his hands casually behind his head. With his legs stretched out in front, he sighed in content and then simply said, "Ahhh, Kim, Kim, Kim. Too easy."

Felix cast Ron a concerned look. "Um, Ron-man, what are you doing?"

Smirking, Ron calmly answered Felix. "I'm gloating, Felix."

"Boy, you don't have time to gloat! You got four minutes, thirty seconds left and counting!" Monique chimed in.

Ron just stretched out even more. "Wade, you listening, buddy?"

The screen in the front of the briefing room lit up in order to display Wade, of which whom was drinking a gigantic soda.

"Wade, what teams have been promoted in the last week?"

Wade looked at a nearby screen to the side of him and then started to tap frenziedly away upon a nearby keyboard. Seconds later, he answered, "Well the Mad Dogs and Bebes have been promoted to class B..."

"WHAT!? _Noooooo_, that can't be! How did she get promoted!? No, I don't believe it."

At Kim's sudden outburst, Ron blinked, raised his eyebrows and then leaned over towards Monique. "Ah...?"

"Academy evil. Don't ask."

"Right. Anyhow, Wade, go on."

"As I was saying, the D Hall'ers have been promoted to class A."

Ron pondered upon that piece of information for a couple of moments whilst he watched Kim impatiently pace backwards and forth at the front of the room, muttering something about evil...itches?

"Wade, anyone of those teams have a new team member registered with them, and if so, are they piloting a Wolf or a Saix?"

Wade continued to type away. "As a matter of fact, the D Hall'ers registered a new team member, piloting a Saix, last night. Let's see...it's registered to one Eric Rotham."

Ron just nodded and then sighed, "So, that's his tactic."

Mr. Dr. P. finally spoke up. "What's his tactic, Ronald?"

Ron thought that it was strange that neither of the Drs. Possible had said much during the entire briefing, but he had just shrugged it off to them simply letting Kim run the show.

"He's not going to fight."

Kim looked at Ron with confusion upon her face. "How...do you figure that one then, Ron?"

"Simple: the D Hall'ers are class A, you're class C. By the Commission's rules, you are not allowed to battle a team in a higher ranking." Ron gave a disgusted snort. "Typical. Eric rigs as much as he can in his favour so that he wins without any risk."

Kim looked defeated. "So, that's it? We've lost without a battle?"

"Nah, there's always a way around. If necessary, I'll fight the lot of them myself. After all, I'm a class A pilot."

Kim looked up. "The agreement was four on four or we forfeit."

Ron cocked his head towards Kim. "Yeah, but was that four on the team, or four on the field?"

Kim frowned. "It was four in the battle, he specifically stated that."

Ron frowned, and then sat forward. Bringing one hand up towards his chin, he muttered, "Damn, he actually learned from the Yamanouchi affair. Well, how about we register you lot under Team Unstoppable, that way you're class A, and it's a four on four?"

'_Yamanouchi affair?'_

Kim would have to enquire more about that later.

"No, again he specifically stated that it had to be Team Possible. No one else fighting for us, and no fighting under a different name."

"Damn, he actually learned from the Killigan incident as well? Who knew he would be able to learn from past mistakes. Well...I got nothing. Wade?"

'_Killigan incident?' _

Kim would be enquiring about that one later as well.

"Well, there is a provision that considers the levels of pilots within the teams for battles between classes in the rules."

Ron nodded. "Uh-huh, I see...um, could you explain it for Kim's sake, if she doesn't understand?"

Kim glared at Ron for a moment and then turned back towards the screen. She quickly realised however, that she herself _did_ need clarification. "Well, Wade?"

"The provision is simple: it works upon the levels and experience of the pilots. The D Hall'ers may be class A, but they've only just become class A. Eric was a class C pilot, same level as Team Possible as he was on the team. His joining the D Hall'ers doesn't improve their standing. Team Possible, on the other hand, had Ron join; he has been a class A pilot for a year, with an unbroken winning streak. His joining Team Possible has raised it to the top of class C, and his level and experience can be argued in the teams favour for the upcoming battle. Especially, since he often battles one on three."

Ron smiled. "Sounds like a solution, Wade. File it with the Battle Commission to see if the team will be cleared for the battle. Well then ,I believe I win the bet in…"

Monique looked at her watch before speaking. "Six minutes, twenty eight seconds."

Kim smiled in apparent victory. "You lose, Ron. The cargo belongs to Team Possible."

Mr. Dr. P. then rather noisily cleared his throat. "Ah...hmm, actually Kimmie-cub, I believe Ronald wins."

Kim looked at her father: she was clearly confused. "How do you figure that one, dad?"

"Well, Kimmie-cub, the bet was for team, zoid and tactic within five minutes. He did that in three minutes, ten seconds _with_ gloating. It took the other three minutes eighteen seconds to come up with a solution to the problem."

Kim harrumphed, and then grudgingly admitted defeat. "Fine, Ron wins. I still don't see how it should count. Wade did the work, not Ron."

"Ah, you're just upset because I worked smarter."

"You didn't work at all, Wade did! Where did he get that info' from, anyway?"

Ron simply smiled. "Zoid Battle Commission lists of course, widely available to all teams."

Kim slapped her forehead with her hand. "Oy, why didn't I think of that?"

"Too busy working harder and not smarter: hard work isn't the only way, Kim. Just like the manual isn't the only way. It's a guide, not a 'must do'."

Kim glared at Ron whilst she clenched her teeth. "So, Ron, what's the plan?"

Ron gave Kim a goofy grin. "Simple: after I beat Eric with the claw, I back up Felix. When we win that battle, Felix backs up you and I back up Monique."

Kim just stared at Ron in disbelief. "And?"

Now, Ron looked confused. "And, what?"

"And what is the rest of the plan? What formations are we going to use? What is the go sign? Who attacks who?"

"No formations, go sign is me taking down Eric. Up to you, who you match up with."

"And that's it? These tactics got you into class A?"

"Ah, yep-yep."

Kim was getting incredibly frustrated at this lack of anything that even remotely resembled a plan. "Unbelievable! This isn't how a professional does tactics! It's amateurish! You...you... you're an amateur!"

Ron grinned goofily at Kim's declaration. "'N' proud of it! After all, according to law seven of Murphy's laws of combat-"

Just then, Ron's stomach let out both a huge and an impressive rumble. Ron looked down upon it with a slight frown. He then simply shrugged, and the familiar goofy smile that usually resided upon his face returned in full force.

"I'm hungry. Hey, who's up for waffles? I'm making waffles!"

And with that, Ron leaped up, stood upon the back of the seat and then jumped over the rail behind it.

He then calmly exited through the door.

An incredulous Kim just stared after him.

Felix glanced around and then casually said to no one in particular, "You know, I could do with some waffles."

He then turned to the side in order to make his way up the ramp towards the door. Upon seeing this, Kim called up to him. "Where do you think you're going, Felix? We still have a briefing to do!"

Felix half turned towards Kim. "I'm going to get some waffles before Ron eats them all."

Kim glared at Felix. "No, you're not. We're going to stay here and get a game plan in place."

Sighing, Felix turned back all of the way around so that he could fully face Kim. "We've already got a game plan in place, a damn good one."

Kim just stared heatedly at Felix for a couple of moments. "A good game plan...that half cocked plan of Ron's? You're going to have to explain how that's a good plan in any sense of the word there, Felix."

Felix just stared at Kim in astonishment. "Do I really have to spell the plan out to you, Kim? You were there, you heard it!"

Kim just silently stared at Felix: she was clearly waiting for an explanation.

Felix frowned at Kim. "Okay then, it's simple: the D Hall'ers use heavily armoured zoids, and outside of the Dibison, our zoids cannot go toe to toe with them. With me so far, Kim?"

Kim frowned at Felix. "Don't get snippy, Felix, just explain the plan to me as its _sooo _brilliant that I just didn't get it."

"Fine, Kim. The D Hall'ers use smash and bash tactics, so they will just take the hits and walk through any formation that we try. Ron knows this as he's fought them before: the only way to take them on is two on one. Therefore, we have to be able to double up; the only way to do that is if we take out the weakest link."

Kim's eyes widened in realization.

"Eric."

"Ahhh, now you're seeing it, Kim! That's right, the Saix can't take the punishment that the rest can, so Ron takes him out first by giving him an attack that he sees coming. In this way, Eric will defend as per the book, and then Ron counters the counter and then simply just takes him out. This in turn allows him to aid me in taking out my target. Simple enough, yes?"

Kim looked abashed. "Well, when you put it like that, yes. But, why didn't Ron just say that? And why are you backing me up and not Monique?"

Felix snorted, "Ron did say that Kim: you just weren't listening. As for why I'm backing you up, and Ron, Monique? I would guess that's because Rufus and the Saix armours are the weakest links in our zoid's defence. The Dibison can take a hammering, and the Liger has shields. We can cover you from most of the heaver weapons, while you and Ron in the faster zoids can flank our opposing numbers zoids."

Kim looked stunned. "Well...it's okay, I guess. Not what I would have done. I would have been a bit more formalised...added a couple of formations, maybe round to zoid ratio expected in the battle, that sort of thing. Overall, Ron didn't do too badly. If he had simply taken the time to explain it like you did, Felix..."

Felix turned to head back up the ramp, and as he wheeled up, he just shot over his shoulder at Kim, "Perhaps he thought it was too obvious and that he didn't need to explain it more?"

He stopped at the exit's threshold, however, and then he turned back to face Kim once more.

"Just for your information, Kim, law seven of Murphy's Laws of Combat is, 'upon the field of battle, the professional soldier is predictable. It's the amateurs that are dangerous.' You are very much a professional, Kim. Just like Eric."

Felix then turned so that he could head out of the door, but he stopped once again. "One more thing, Kim? Just because Ron didn't go to the Academy, doesn't mean that he wasn't trained. He was. Better than us."

And with that, Felix finally walked out of the room.

Kim blinked, and then turned to look at the remaining occupants of the room. Monique had her head buried deep into her hands. She was leaning forward, and Kim could hear her repeatedly mutter several muffled "noes". She looked over at her parents.

"Well?"

"Well what, dear?" Kim's mother asked in turn.

Kim sighed. "You weren't saying much during the briefing, so you must have wanted to see something. Well, did you see what you wanted to?"

Kim's mother simply smiled. "Yes, dear, I believe we did."

Kim waited for a few seconds before she coaxed the inevitable answer out of her parents. "And?"

Mrs. Dr. P. just continued to smile. "Well, he's a little rough around the edges and he's not exactly orthodox in his approach to doing things, but he should work out quite nicely."

Kim just blinked. "Work out? Work out?! Did you not just see what he just did?! He took over the briefing! He turned it into a mockery, and he has turned Felix against me!"

Mrs. Dr. P. just looked at Kim for a while before answering. "Kim, how did he turn the briefing into a mockery? He got valuable information on your opponents and then came up with a viable plan of attack. The plan is viable, isn't it, Kim?"

Kim looked at her mother for a few seconds before she dropped her gaze towards the floor. "Yes...it's viable. It's actually pretty good. He could have gone into more detail, though."

"Then bring that up with him, Kim. After all, if he's to continue working with the team, he will be giving his opinion of other battles and opponents. Get him to compromise in the briefings so that he can give you in depth information and plans, as well as giving you the freedom to relax some. After all, he did bring up some valuable points...even if he wasn't very tactful in giving them."

Kim looked at her mother, thinking upon what she had just said before she finally decided to answer. "Okay, I will concede that he had some valuable points, but he completely undermined my command! And Felix...he's never been like that before!"

Surprisingly (considering that she had continued to hold her head within her hands throughout the entire discussion), Monique answered Kim's statement. "Kim, Felix has been unhappy with how you've been running the team for a while now, even before this whole thing with Eric. He's been even talking about rejoining his old team. He may just see this as an opportunity to do so..."

Monique paused for a moment, as if she were considering whether to continue or not. She then decided to just barge ahead anyway. "Actually, Kim, we've both been unhappy with the running of the team: you've been very closed with briefings and you never seemed to even listen to our opinions with tactics, only Eric's. We've always felt exhausted from all the drills you make us run just before battles. Overall, we don't feel like we're equal members of the team."

Kim looked absolutely stunned.

"Monique, if you felt this way, why didn't you say anything?"

Monique just looked at Kim. "I've tried several times, but you never seemed to be in a receptive mood so I put it off, thinking that it would get better. It hasn't. Maybe Ron being on the team will be good for you...and him."

Kim continued to just stare at Monique. "How do you figure, Monique?"

Monique in turn just smirked at Kim. "Well, he seems to have gotten you to relax some, if yesterday was any example. Who knows? Maybe he'll help you burn off some energy before the battles..."

Kim quickly blushed at the suggested implication that was not so subtly carried behind Monique's seemingly innocent enough remark.

Monique continued on. "And, he hasn't been with a team much. You heard him: limited team time, so the boy's used to doing things his own way because he's never had to worry about others."

Kim turned towards her mother, and she quickly noticed that her father -in the meantime- was scowling at Monique. "What do you think, mom?"

For a few seconds, Mrs. Dr. P. thought upon the issue before she decided to respond to Kim's question. "I think there's a lot of changes to be made, Kim, and several fences to be mended if this team is to survive beyond this battle. Now, why don't you girls go grab some waffles before the boys eat them all?"

Kim turned and then grabbed Monique by the arm. As they both started to head out of the room, Kim tilted her head back and then called back towards her mother. "Okay, mom, I'll try to patch things up with Felix, and talk to Ron about explaining his plans in more depth."

She then turned to face the large screen behind her so that she could address Wade, of which whom had just been silently observing the entire conversation. "Wade, you can feel free to share information with me at the same time as Ron, please and thank you."

She then turned her attention towards Monique. At the same time, both of the twins came running into the room. "Now, Monique, what had you so upset just now?"

Monique -in turn- turned away from her whilst mumbling, "I made a bet with Felix about the outcome of this briefing."

Kim just shrugged: apparently, she did not see any problems with Monique losing a bet. "No big Monique, just pay Felix the standard bet fee."

Monique glanced down, blushing. Kim, now curious and slightly nonplussed, simply raised her eyebrow up at that as they both made their way out of the door.

"Monique, what did you bet?"

Still staring at the floor as they both walked onwards, Monique muttered, "Welllll...we decided to make the bet more...interesting."

Kim's interest was now greatly piqued. "What did you bet?"

"Welllll...the loser had to model Tara's bikini. I thought Felix could model it nicely...unfortunately, I lost."

Kim stopped within her tracks. "Tara's bikini? What bikini is that?"

Monique halted at a single pace ahead of Kim. "Oh, I can't believe that I forgot to tell you the gossip! Must have been because I was distracted by the white chocolate Seven Layers of Heaven-"

Kim's eyes had lit up at the mention of her favourite cake, and she rudely interrupted with, "There's a white chocolate Seven Layers of Heaven? And you didn't tell me?! Where is it?"

Monique took a sudden step back away from Kim at her sudden enthusiasm for her most desired type of cake, "Um, in the kitchen."

Kim turned upon the spot and then quickly raced off, leaving both a stunned and staring Monique inside of her wake.

ZNCP

Mrs. Dr. P. watched as both Kim and Monique left the briefing room and as both of the twins suddenly rushed in, looking clearly excited.

"Now boys, calm down. What has you so excited?" Mr. Dr. P .addressed.

"We just spoke to Ron…"

"…about how much the weapons on …"

"…the Cargo suck. So we…"

"…asked him if we could…"

"…do some modifications."

Mr. Dr. P. suddenly looked intrigued at this new development. "What did Ronald say about the modifications?"

Tim and Jim simply grinned like the proverbial Cheshire cat.

"He said, that we could do what we liked…"

"…as long as it was legal…"

"…or if not legal, to at…"

"…least give him plausible deniability."

Mr. Dr. P. started to grin with this development. "Well now, any modifications we want, hmm? I believe I saw some spare weapons down in the maintenance bay! Let's go have a look."

Mr. Dr. P. got up and then headed out of the room. The twins had started to follow him when Tim suddenly stopped. He reached into a pocket and then pulled out a folded piece of paper, of which then he proudly held out towards his mother.

"Oh, we did the job that you wanted us to, mom. This is the result."

Mrs. Dr. P. carefully took the paper away from Tim. He himself then headed out after both his brother and his father. Mrs. Dr. P. opened up the folded paper and then looked at the picture upon its glossy surface.

She suddenly gasped as an unbridled jolt of surprise hit her, and her empty hand went straight up towards her mouth.

Images suddenly came to mind of a younger Kimberly Ann Possible, of which whom was waiting for her most best and closest friend of five important years to turn up for her ninth birthday party. She had just finished talking to him through the phone, and she was excitedly expecting him any minute now.

After waiting for two long hours, there was not a blond hair in sight. She had finally decided to brazenly rush over to his nearby home...only to discover that it was empty, and picked clean of any sign of any previous habitation: there was no sign at all of anyone having even lived there. The entire house was completely empty, a mere shell of brick and mortar and not a home in even the most vaguest of senses.

The Possible family in vain had tried to find out what had happened to the Stoppables for many long weeks after that: the Stoppables had just vanished as if they had never even existed at all.

Kim had been both completely demoralized and heartbroken at that.

She had cried within her room for weeks after both her closest friend and his families' mysterious disappearance, and she had bordered upon becoming a depressed wreck...

There had been no sign of either him or his family for nine entire years now...but now, now she held in her clenched hand the digitally manipulated photograph of what Ronald 'Unstoppable' Stoppable had looked like at the tender young age of just nine years old.

The image was a perfect match to what she remembered of Kim's once best friend.

"_Oh, Ron...what happened to you and your family? Do you still remember your friend? Judging from Kimmie's actions around you, she recognises you at least on some sort of level...but she doesn't remember you clearly, not yet."_

Whilst shaking her head, Mrs. Dr. P. turned towards Wade's image that was upon the nearby big screen. "Wade, what do you know about Ron's past?"

For a few long and silent moments, Wade simply sucked upon his soda's straw. He was clearly considering his answer carefully. "Enough to know, that it's not my place to tell you. Why?"

Mrs. Dr. P. looked torn for a few moments. Finally, she sighed, "Nothing, Wade. I'm going to the Kitchen, please let us know when we get to the battlefield."

ZNCP

Eric was happy: he had just about finished yet another successful recruitment.

The best thing of all however, was that there had been no interference from that_ loser_ once again.

He had interfered with the last three acquisition attempts, but this time, this time there would be no saving this specific team.

It had almost been too easy this time.

That stupid bitch Possible had fallen all over herself in order to just get to know him, and her father had been just as easy to manipulate as well: laugh at his lame and stupid jokes, bring his little _'Kimmie-cub' _home before her curfew and make sure that he had been there for the goodbyes. It had taken very little effort really, and soon the Backdraft would have a few new pilots. That was just the main bonus, however: his real target had been Dr. Possible and his twin sons. The brainpower from those three alone would easily guarantee the crucial successes required for Project Rebirth.

It had taken an entire year, but the inevitable success was definitely worth it.

"_Who knows, maybe the Council will give me Kim to break. That would be...fun."_

Yes, he would enjoy seeing the look upon her face as she learned the agonizing truth. Then, he would sadistically enjoy breaking her spirit and will so that she would be his simple little play thing. Eric was more than looking forward to it: a few more minutes, and she would be his.

"_Not that she ever had a chance of winning."_

No, this had been well and truly thought/laid out.

Breaking the team's morale with the losses, whilst simultaneously sowing discord within the team's ranks had been too easy: Kim had even unintentionally helped him with that to no end. She had blocked out the rest of the world to simply be with him, and this had also allowed him to both quietly and strictly control all of the battles from plans to tactics, thus leaving nothing to chance. He had found it simply too easy to divert her own attention away when her friend had tried to get her to notice what had been going on, and to let her know what had been happening.

"_Stupid bitch, she almost ruined the op'...not that it mattered. I've won now."_

Bankrupting the team's finances had been too easy: once he had been listed upon the accounts, it had been child's play to secretly outfit the D Hall'ers for the upcoming battle. Sabotaging the zoids had been as just as easy: after all, he had enough solid experience at that sort of task from previous experiences. Then, just to make sure that they would lose according to the official terms of the battle, he had threatened all of the pilots that either Kim or her team mates currently knew of so that none of them would fight for Team Possible in the upcoming duel. Therefore, they would never be able to find the crucial fourth pilot that was required by the terms of the battle. If by some miracle they did manage to find both a fourth pilot and the zoids that were required for the upcoming battle, they had no way of getting to the battle site on time unless they had managed to get their hands upon another Whale King.

A Gustav travelling at its maximum speed of 135 kilometres per hour would never make it here within the time limit, nor would a simple Hover Cargo travelling at its maximum speed of 200 kilometres per hour.

If, somehow, they did manage to get here in time with the requirements of the battle filled to a letter T, they would never be allowed to battle anyway due to the class rule. Not that Eric was going to take any chances anyway: the loser had proven to him on several occasions before within the past that there were ways around even those seemingly solid obstacles. That was why he had enlisted the D Hall'ers: Kim would try her normal razzle and dazzle formation tricks and tactics upon them, and they would simply walk right through them and then destroy whatever zoids that they would have.

He looked out to his immediate right where the rest of his team was located.

Standing right beside him was a Dark Horn, a huge dinosaur type zoid that was as heavily armed as it was armoured, as well as standing tall over 13 meters high.

Next to that was the even bigger Madthunder, which was both even more heavily armed and armoured: weighing over 500 tons and standing at over 16 meters high, it was truly an imposing beast. Only an Elephander was a match for that type of zoid.

The last of the zoids that the D Hall'ers had was the Spino Sapper: whilst not as imposing as the other two zoids beside it as it only stood at 11 meters tall, it was just as heavily armoured as its nearby brethren and the laser chainsaws mounted upon its back would cut through even the staunchest armour of any zoid type.

The D Hall'ers were not especially smart, but they had brought **a lot** of fire-power to the party, especially since he himself had acquired the Madthunder for them. It had taken some wheedling from the Backdraft archaeology team in order to get it from them, but it had been worth it.

He was almost feeling sorry for Team Possible.

Almost.

Just then, Eric was distracted by the sound of an incoming object whistling through the air. This was quickly followed by a huge and grinding impact about a rough kilometre away. Once the smoke and dust had settled from the air, the white judge's capsule could be seen deep inside of the crater. The front of the capsule then pivoted up, revealing the white judge that had been cocooned within the capsule. It was roughly humanoid in shape with a single leg, and in the place of its hands were blue and red plates that were used to signal which team had won a fight.

Eric smiled victoriously: there was no sign at all of Team Possible. He activated his communication unit.

"Well boys, it looks like that bitch Possible didn't even have the guts to show up. This was way too easy a win."

Just then, the Judge had started talking.

"By special dispensation of battle rule 135, subsection 3, paragraph 1, this interclass battle has been approved."

Eric could not believe his ears! The battle had just been approved!

"**WHAT!** What do you mean, approved?"

"The provision that considers the levels of pilots within the teams for battles between classes has been considered. Dispensation has been given, battle approved."

"_This cannot be happening, again,"_ Eric thought bitterly to himself.

The Judge started to talk once again.

"Battle mode 0982, approved..."

"Area scanned.....area clear."

"Battlefield set-up..."

"Ready....."

"Wait, what are you doing?! That cowardly bitch Possible isn't even on the field of battle! She forfei-"

Eric stopped talking as a blue and white hover cargo suddenly de-cloaked less than a single kilometre away from his own position. He then heard Kim's cool and edged voice emanate over and through the main communication frequency.

"Cowardly bitch then, eh, Eric? Well, it's nice to know what you really think of me."

Eric watched in sheer disbelief as the magnetic ramp over the top of the hover cargo's bridge extended, and the top of the shell itself opened up. A red headed Saix positioned itself upon the ramp, and it was then flung down the ramp. It then smoothly landed in front of the Dark Horn at a distance of barely 200 meters away. As the Saix was landing, a Shield Liger had been positioned upon the ramp and it too had spectacularly launched. It then landed neatly beside the Saix upon its left flank. Then, the head of the Cargo opened up, revealing a Dibison, which then quickly charged across the ground so that it could get into its assigned place at the Liger's left flank.

Eric was stunned! Not only had they gotten fully operational and combat ready zoids…

"_Where did they get them from?"_

...but they had also turned up on time to fight the battle, and also _somehow_ gotten the interclass battle legally approved.

"_How?"_

A realization suddenly hit him, and a cruel smile had started to develop upon his superficially charming features.

"Wait, this is a four on four battle! Team Possible only has three team members! They forfeit the mat-"

Once more, Eric's speech was interrupted by movement taking place upon the Team Possible deployment ramp. He noticed some pink rat like thing positioning itself upon the launch ramp. It was then flung down the ramp, but unlike the others, it had landed barely 50 meters away from Eric and his zoid upon his left. After landing upon the ground, it quickly turned to face Eric's Saix with surprising speed, grace and agility.

ZNCP

Kim was impressed: Wade's tactic of waiting upon the field, cloaked, had worked! Eric was totally thrown off: he had gotten into his overconfident and smug mind that no battle was going to take place. Judging from the sounds that were coming from the communication frequency, he did not know what to think or do.

She then noticed Ron landing in Rufus over close to Eric.

"_Damn it, Ron! I know you're supposed to take on Eric, but did you have to get so close?"_

Kim then heard Ron's voice echo out and over the team communication frequency: he sounded clearly impressed.

"Woah, is that a Madthunder? Kim, they have a Madthunder! That would be _sooo_ cool, if it wasn't going to hurt us!"

Kim sighed: Ron could at least _act_ professionally just before they were about to fight!

"Ron, concentrate," Kim admonished.

"But Kim, these bad boys were designed to go up against Deathsaurer's!"

"Never mind that, just remember the plan."

"Plan...plan? We have a plan?"

Kim could not believe what she was hearing! Surely Ron could not be panicking!

"Yes, Ron, the plan, you remember the plan, don't you?"

Kim quickly switched her communication frequency to exclusively broadcast to Felix. "Damn it, Felix, is he always like this before a battle?"

Felix sounded unconcerned. "Yeah, pretty much, but don't worry about it...he'll pull through. He always does."

Kim just continued to listen to Ron as he rambled over the communication frequency.

"Plan, we have a plan? Hey Wade, is this the P plan that we're supposed to be doing?"

Kim continued to listen intently as Wade answered back.

"Are you sure you want to go with the P plan, Ron? I would have thought S or X would have been the better option here."

"Nah, definitely P. The shields on the Mad Thunder are designed to reflect a CPC, plus it's slow. Plan P, get it ready."

"_Plan P, S and X? What has Ron not told me? What are those plans?"_

Kim's thoughts were interrupted by Eric of which whom was calling her over the general communication frequency. He sounded pissed off beyond belief!

"Stoppable!? You replaced me with that _loser_, Stoppable!? You really traded down there, Kimmie!"

Before Kim could answer Eric's barb however, Ron did. Kim suddenly heard something carried within Ron's voice that she had not heard in the entire two days that she had known him: there was a raging hot anger in his tones.

"_I'm _a loser? Yet, I keep beating you, Eric! What does that say about you, huh?"

It only escalated from there with Ron and Eric trading barbs backwards and forth. As Kim listened on, she definitely got the impression that not only were Ron and Eric old acquaintances, but they also loathed one another with a passion. The animosity grew between them with each passing barb.

Somewhere within the verbal match that Ron and Eric were having, the Judge was heard calling...

"Fight!"

Just when the call was made however, Eric said something to Ron about his parents.

Ron did not respond with words. Rufus suddenly darted forward.

"RON! Amp down-"

But it was too late. Rufus had jumped up. Laser energy could clearly be seen emanating from Rufus' laser claws. Ron was going for the overhand Strike Laser Claw attack.

Rufus was coming down from the jump with his right paw held high, left paw held down.

"Too easy, Stoppable," Kim heard Eric say over the main communication frequency.

She watched as Eric sat his Saix back into the standard counter manoeuvre to the overhead strike.

Just as Rufus dropped down to the range where Eric had pretty much a point blank shot, Rufus then did something that completely confirmed his status as the most agile zoid that Kim had ever seen: he pulled his right paw back and over whilst at the same time, he brought up his left paw from underneath. Eric's shot went through the empty air where Rufus' chest had been less than a scant second before, and Rufus quickly gutted the Saix from the chest upwards to its jaw with his left paw. Half of the Saix's cockpit had been cleanly torn away, leaving a shocked Eric completely exposed. Rufus then finished the side flip, landing upon his right paw before he continued onwards within one smooth and fluid movement. Jumping up high, his front claws went down through the Dark Horn's weapons upon its back. Then, as he vaulted off of its back, his rear claws cut into and through the armour of its back and into the delicate circuits below, sending the stricken zoid into a catastrophic system freeze.

As Rufus was coming down from the leap at the Madthunder, it just pulled back slightly in the hopes of trying to simply impale Rufus upon its Thunder Horn. Rufus, of whom despite being thrown off of his aim, still managed to slice both Magnesser Drills and the Thunder Horn off with his claws before he landed in front of the Spino Sapper. Rufus turned into the Sapper, rearing up onto his hind legs with his forepaws locking up with the Sapper's claws.

It was at this stage that Kim had finally decided to get into the battle.

"Monique, back up Ron! Felix, with me on the Madthunder. Ron, we're a team, work as such!"

Ron made no response to the communication, but Felix was distantly heard saying, "Oh, yay! I get the Madthunder. Just what I always wanted."

ZNCP

Inside of the bridge of the Hover Cargo, Wade was sitting at his console going over the battle specifications displayed clearly in front of him. Rufus was performing well above expected levels, as evidenced with his display against the D Hall'ers within the first sixty seconds of the battle. Still, against the Madthunder, it was not known if it was going to be enough.

Watching the battle upon the screen continue, he saw the Spino Sapper start to bring its Laser Chainsaws into play. Rufus would not be able to last too long if he got hit with them. Wade keyed his communication frequency so that it was directed to Ron.

"Ron, Monique's coming up behind you."

Ron simply grunted, "Monique, Crusher Horns."

Rufus then slipped his right rear foot back, and then threw the Sapper with a hip toss. The Sapper landed right in front of the Dibison and then got hit full into the back with the Dibison's Crusher Horns, sending it flying back past to where it had been initially thrown from. Monique continued to chase it down, and once she quickly caught up with it, she simply ran it over with the Dibison. The Dibison's Crusher Hooves landed in several places that -if the Spino Sapper was a male- would not have been too happy about.

"That was hardly needed."

Wade barely caught the comment from Mr. Possible, who was up behind Wade inside of the command post.

Wade just keyed all of the communication links. "That's all zoids but the Madthunder disabled. I would recommend coming in from the sides and rear for your attacks."

"Is that where its amour is weakest, Wade?" Kim asked.

"Nah, but I figure that you will be less open to its secondary weapons."

"Not helping, Wade!"

Wade was about to reply to Kim's deadpan, but Mrs. Possible signalled for his attention. She was both sitting to his left and monitoring the team's vitals.

"Wade, is this correct?" she asked, indicating Ron's heart rate.

Wade glanced at the statistics for a brief moment, before nonchalantly replying, "Yeah, that looks about normal for Ron."

All of the team's heart rates were slightly elevated, as it was to be expected with them being in combat and all....except for Ron's

Mrs. Possible looked puzzled. "How is this possible? Even when he was in that shouting match with Eric, it didn't go up...if anything, his heart rate has gone down."

Wade sighed; he did not know how much he was allowed to tell. He had to tell Mrs. Possible something, though; she was a doctor, and she knew how the body should have normally/naturally reacted to combat related stresses.

"Ron's doing battle meditation; it's a trick he learned from the Yamanouchi Team, when he worked with them two years ago."

Ron had learned a lot of things during the time that he had worked with them. They had stayed together for a couple of months before Ron had moved on, as per his usual _modus operandi._ They had met up several times since, though, with Ron learning more and more each time.

"As for the argument, that was a show for Eric's benefit. After all, if Eric didn't think Ron was acting rashly, he may have used his boosters to get out of the way," Wade continued.

Mrs. Dr. P was impressed. "He went into this battle well prepared, I'm impressed."

Wade looked at Mrs. Dr. P. "Ron may not have learned the academies way of doing things, but he has learned the psychology of zoid battles."

Mrs. Dr. P. was about to answer, but before she could Kim was once again heard over the team's main communication frequency. Things were not going well against the titanic Madthunder.

ZNCP

Kim was moving the Saix around the Madthunder, landing well placed shots where she was able. The Saix's fixed weapons were proving to be incredibly frustrating in regards to this desperate task, and she had to be facing the Madthunder in order to hit it accurately. Considering the Saix's speed compared to the Madthunder's (even without using the boosters), that meant that she only had a couple of seconds within each pass in order to land a hit. Not that her shots were doing much anyhow: she doubted that the titanic beast was even aware of the shots that it was taking.

She glanced over to where Felix was: he himself was not fairing that much better. He had depleted the Liger's missiles against the Madthunder, and they had no more effect upon the behemoth than her own current attacks.

She looked over at Ron: he was darting in and out inside of Rufus, landing blows with his Strike Laser Claws. He was leaving deep and prominent gouges within the monstrosities thick armour plating, but he was not doing any real damage. He could not even get into the joints to severe a leg.

"_What we need is heavier fire-power. What I wouldn't give for some Hybrid Cannons!"_

Kim pulled up short, her Saix sliding to a full stop.

"_Plan P...Hybrid Cannons..." _Ron's description of Rufus's capabilities came towards her mind.

Her eyes widened.

"_He's CAS compatible…"_

"RON!" Kim screamed over the team's interlinking communication frequency.

"Argh! Kim, indoor voice over the comm's, please!"

"Ron, it's time for plan P!"

"What!? _Noooo_, we can win this without plan P, Kim!"

Kim growled with frustration: even now, he was being difficult! And it originally _**was **__his_ idea...

"Ron, we need the fire-power of plan P to get through the Madthunder's armour. We're doing nothing here but annoying it!"

"Kim, if we can open up a joint, we can win!"

"Ron, you're not even getting through that armour even **with** Rufus' claws! How 'bout this, then? Team vote. Felix?"

Felix had just taken several heavy hits from the Madthunder's secondary weapons, and thus he sounded shaken from the heavy impacts. "If it finishes this quickly, hell yeah!"

"Monique?'

Monique had just lowered the front of the Dibison down, looking to use her main weapons: seventeen 105mm mortars mounted upon its back.

"I've got your plan P right here!"

Monique fired all seventeen mortars at the Madthunder, and all seventeen of the rounds struck with both devastating force and a thunderous boom. Once the smoke had cleared however, the Madthunder could be seen clearly unharmed.

"Then again, plan P sounds like a good option at this time," Monique backtracked towards Kim.

"Three tops one, Ron, plan P is a go!"

Ron sighed. "Fine. Hold the fort, I'll be back as soon as I can...still think its overkill," he muttered.

Kim saw Rufus then turn and then head towards the Cargo's rear hatch.

Just then, the Madthunders pilot called over the open communication frequency. "Damn, Stoppable! Eric said that you were a loser, but he didn't mention that you were a coward as well, running from the battle. Ha! 'Unstoppable' isn't as unstoppable as he's made out to be!"

Ron replied to the taunts, "I'm not running, Vinnie, Rufus just isn't dressed for the occasion. I'll be right back once Rufus has changed."

Rufus then gracefully entered the rear hatch.

Kim and the rest of the team continued to circle the Madthunder, using ineffectual hit and run tactics against it.

"Wade, how's it going?"

"Rufus's Prime armour has been removed, rotating secondary armour into place. Ron will be finished and back on the ground in thirty seconds," Wade responded.

Kim glanced over towards the cargo: it had started moving forward. Its left side panel pivoted down with the maintenance deck sliding out onto the panel. On top of it stood Rufus, now standing 8.9 meters tall and also decked out within bulky green armour. Most prominently, twin Hybrid cannons were upon his shoulders.

Wade could be heard over the communications. "Rufus Panzer CAS complete. Rufus Panzer deployed."

Rufus dropped off of the back of the panel and landed hard upon the ground. He then turned towards the Madthunder and then started to calmly walk towards it. At the same time, the Madthunder turned towards Rufus.

"Is that supposed to impress me, Stoppable? 'Cause it doesn't."

Vinnie then opened up with all of the Madthunder's secondary weapons, directing them straight at Rufus: a Double-Barrelled Large-Bore Impact Cannon, two Beam Cannons, a Quad-Barrelled Shotgun, and a Double-Barrelled Shotgun. Rufus was hit dead centre with such devastating force that it kicked up dirt and dust.

Several ominous seconds passed.

Incredibly, Rufus then walked out of the smoke and dust without even a scratch upon his armour.

"That your best shot, Vinnie? Too bad. Here's mine."

Rufus set himself down, lowering his front. He then fired the twin Hybrid Cannons. Four beams shot out and then hit the Madthunder directly upon the head and between the broken remains of the Magnesser Drills with a devastating result. The entire armour plate was destroyed, alongside most of the Mad Thunder's head. The zoid continued to stand for a few moments, but eventually gravity took a hold: it had fallen over onto its side. Rufus himself had slid several meters backwards from the pure and unrelenting force of the Hybrid Cannons powerful recoil.

All was quiet for a minute. Then, Monique whistled, "Damn, I thought the Madthunder had shields."

Wade responded to the question. "It does, they're designed to reflect a CPC. The Hybrid cannon are made up of an AZ 216 mm Railgun and AZ 108 mm Beam Gun. The Madthunder had no shield defence against them."

A clang was heard resonating over and upon the battlefield.

"The fight is over, the fight is over. The winner is...Team Possible."

Upon hearing this, Ron then pulled Rufus up and then opened the cockpit's armoured canopy. He released his restraints. Kim -in the meanwhile- had pulled the Saix up beside Rufus as he watched the Judges capsule close up and then launch itself into the air.

Kim contacted Ron through the private communication frequency assigned to Rufus.

"Ron, you got some 'splaining to do!"

Ron leaned forward so that he could answer Kim. "About what, Kim?"

"Like how do you know Eric? And what is your history with him?"

"Oh, that's easy," Ron casually replied, "we were in the Backdraft together."

* * *

Madthunder is a Triceratops-type.

Bear Fighter is a Bear-type.

Dark Horn is a Styracosaurus.

Spino Sapper is a Spinosaurus type.

**CPC –** charged particle canon

CAS – changing amour system

**Panzer** (Armor or Tank in German)

The third CAS Unit, the CP-21 Panzer Unit is designed for heavy assault and long-range bombardment. The armor reduces the Zoid's speed and agility, while increasing its overall level of protection and drastically increasing its firepower. The unit sports two heavy beam cannons in addition to numerous concealed missile launchers.


	4. for survival

**Kim Possible: Zoids - New Century.**

_Disclaimer: Disney owns Kim Possible, Tomy owns Zoids, Kim Possible: Zoids– New Century plot line owned by 'Blue Kiwi'._

**Chapter 4: ...for survival**

* * *

Kim jumped down from the Lighting Saix; given the fact the team had just beaten a class 'A' team in an extremely important battle. It would be expected that she would be in a celebratory mood.

That couldn't be further from the truth.

She was pissed, no she was beyond pissed. She was ready to murder Ron, all over one sentence.

_"We were in the Backdraft together."_

As far as she was concerned, the team had traded one traitorous bastard for another. And she was going to let him know exactly what she thought of him for that before she kicked him out of the Hover Cargo.

Stomping out the rear of the maintenance area, she was about to head up towards the living quarters when her way was blocked. Looking up she saw Felix, he wasn't in a good mood either, judging from his expression.

"You got a minute Kim." He growled at her.

"Not right now Felix, I need to talk to that bastard." She shot back.

"Then I suggest that you make time Kim, before you talk to Ron." The scowl on his face intensifying with Kim's last comment.

Kim wasn't happy she just wanted to get that bastard off the team's transport.

"I'm not in the mood for this right now Felix."

"Tough."

Kim was brought up short; she had assumed that Felix had wanted to talk about Ron having announced that he had been in the Backdraft. Now she wasn't so sure.

"_You knew_, didn't you? That he's part of the Backdraft." Kim shot at Felix.

"Was Kim. He _was_part of the Backdraft."

Kim was taken aback; here was a trusted team member. Not only announcing that he knew about Ron's membership in the Backdraft, but he had withheld it from her.

Kim was going to take disciplinary action with Felix over this, it was unacceptable.

"I will _deal_ with you later Felix. After, I deal with him."

"You go up there and confront him over this; the only person that will get thrown off the team will be you."

Kim was shocked, how could he say that. This was her parent's team, _her_ team. They had worked hard for this team; no way would she be leaving it.

Felix watching Kim knew what was going through her mind, and decided to strike while she was off balance.

"The zoids we used today _are his_, our transport. _**His**_. Everything onboard, all weapons, down to that cake you love so much _is his_. He doesn't need _you_ Kim, _**you**_ need him. He's only humouring you by letting you put _your_ name on the team, and letting you lead."

Kim took a step back; in her anger she had forgotten that Ron had lent them the zoids for the battle.

"If he was still a member of the Backdraft _why_ would he help us today? Why would he go up against Eric like that?" Felix continued, upon seeing the confusion on Kim's face.

"If you go up there and confront him without listening to his side of things, the only one who will lose is you. You still need him and his zoids, if you want to be able to pay back all the money the team owes."

Kim was starting to calm down slightly at Felix's words, she had calmed down from a murderous rage to merely being very, very, very angry.

"We all have choices Kim, what will yours be?" Felix asked

"What about his choice Felix, what about him being a member of Backdraft?" Kim shot back not wanting to let go of her outrage.

Felix responded calmly, "He chose to leave the Backdraft Kim."

"He should _**never**_ have joined Felix, what about that choice?" Kim shot back.

Felix looked sad for a second before replying. "That choice was taken away from him Kim. Don't let that take this team away from you. If you do, I'll go with Ron. And I'm sure Monique will join me."

Kim wasn't happy, she felt like Felix was backing her into a corner. Which he was, he wanted her to hear Ron's story. He was sure that once she had, she would have a whole new respect for what he had survived.

"So what Felix, I should be what? Honoured, that he's telling me this."

"Yes Kim, _you should_. It took me nearly two years before Ron trusted me enough to tell me. He's telling you after two days. I don't know why he trusts you like he does, but he does. All I'm asking is that you listen to him before passing judgement on him."

Kim glared at Felix for a while, before answering. "Fine, it's not like you're giving me a choice here Felix."

"We all have choices Kim, you can listen or not. Your choice. Just remember that there is more than just you and your ego to consider here." Felix replied calmly to Kim.

Kim was offended, Felix even suggesting that this was about ego. It was about principles, and Ron's lack of them for being a member of Backdraft.

Felix wheeled his wheelchair around and started to head towards the elevator.

"He's in the rec room waiting to talk to us, if _you'd_ care to join us." Felix shot over his shoulder as he left Kim fuming in the passageway.

ZNCP

Ron was sitting on a chair in the rec room, the Drs. Possible were sitting on the sofa with the twins. Monique was relaxing on a plush chair to the left of the sofa with a cup of tea in hand.

Ron was waiting for Kim and Felix to turn up, although he wasn't sure if Kim turning up was a good thing or not. Not with the way she reacted when he told her he had been in the Backdraft. She had gone apocalyptic almost instantly. Ron was thanking his lucky stars that Rufus had been in the Panzer armour; other wise Kim may have attacked him on the spot.

'_What was I thinking telling her like that, should have kept my mouth shut.'_

Ron had to admit, it had felt good to totally annihilate Eric like he had. To bad Rufus's claws weren't another half meter longer, then he would have done Zi a favour and gotten rid of the bastard once and for all.

'O_ne day Eric, you'll make the mistake of challenging me to a Backdraft match. Then we'll finish this once and for all."_

Yes he had allowed the victory to go to his head; he had forgotten his earlier training and celebrated in the moment. That's why he had made the slip of the tongue and told Kim.

Ron heard the elevator doors open, looking over he saw Felix wheel out. He wheeled around to Ron's side, where he held his fist up for a knuckle bump. Which Ron obliged him with.

"What were you doing Felix?" Ron enquired

Felix just gave a tight smile, "Giving Kim a few facts of life. She should be along shortly, and _should_ behave herself."

Ron lifted his eyebrows at that, and from the corner of his eye he saw Mrs Dr. P. do the same.

"Don't worry Ron-man; I've got your back." Felix assured him when he saw the doubting expression on Ron's face.

Ron was about to reply, when he heard the door to the stairwell open. Kim came through the door as Ron looked towards it.

Kim was still in her combat clothes, black stretch bell bottom trousers, with a purple long sleeved top and black gloves. Her long auburn hair was hanging down her back, and there was a fire blazing in her bright green eyes.

Kim marched into the room heading towards Ron. Ron swallowed nervously, while his right hand started rubbing the back of his neck. When Kim had reached the middle of the room Mrs Dr P spoke up.

"Kimmie..."

Without turning around, Kim tilted her head back to address her mother. "Its ok mom, I'm not going to kill Ron. Felix...let me know the score."

Kim then turned her full attention to Ron, giving him her best death glare.

"Roooon, you got some 'splainning to do."

With his hand still behind his neck, Ron chuckled nervously. "Heh, heh, yeah I guess I do."

Ron looked around the room for a bit before taking a deep breath to start.

"Welll..."

Before he could proceed further, Kim interrupted him. Realising, that Wade wasn't in the room.

"What, where's Wade? He should be here as well."

Mr Dr P answered before Ron could.

"He's piloting the Cargo Kimmie cub. He knows about this already, so we decided that he didn't need to be here as well."

Kim pivoted to look at her father,

"Of course he knows about it, he's part of it. That's all the more reason that he should be in here so we can keep an eye on him." Kim exclaimed.

"Kimmie, stop and think. What is Wade going to do, kidnap us and drive us to the local Backdraft HQ?" Her mother exclaimed

Kim looked slightly subdued at that comment, before she could reply the big screen that Felix had been using to play games on flicked on and Wade's image appeared on the screen.

"If it makes you feel better Kim, I'll keep the screen running live so you can keep an eye on me."

It was Mrs Dr P that answered for Kim.

"That's ok Wade, Kim's just letting her competitive streak and paranoia run away with her common sense."

She then addressed Kim, "Sit down Kim and let Ron tell us what happened to him instead of coming..."

She quickly stopped herself before she gave away the information that Kim knew Ron from her childhood. Preferring to let Kim find out about that herself, especially if Ron's tale would help her assimilate what had happened that day.

Kim noticed that her mother had caught herself about to say something, and was about to address it when Monique spoke up.

"Kim, sit down. You're making Ron nervous enough as it is, without looking like you're going to attack him at any moment. I for one am curious about what made him join the Backdraft."

Kim briefly looked at Monique, before resuming her glare at Ron.

"Yes Ron, please go on and tell us what high and mighty calling got you to join such an august body." Kim snarled at Ron.

Ron frowned at Kim's tone, then proceeded to start his tale again.

"As I was going to say, it started about eleven years ago not long after the Royal Cup. When the Backdraft tried to take over, they were in disarray. Looking to rebuild after the Battle Commission had retaliated at the end of the Cup. They had secured all the assets that they could, and then sent out scouts to locate talent that would help them rebuild."

Ron paused to look around the room, everyone was looking at him. Every face had curiosity etched into it, except for Kim's mom. She just looked concerned, like she was seeing something that none of the rest of them did. Ron was puzzled at this, but took a sip of water from his glass and continued on.

"It was about this time that my father's team caught the Backdraft's eye. My father was a member of the Actuarian Team..."

As soon as Ron had mentioned the team, Mr Dr P had gasped and looked at his wife. She merely squeezed his hand, and looked back at Ron.

Kim having turned to look at her father when he gasped was wondering what was wrong.

"Dad? What is it?"

"Nothing Kimmie cub. Ronald please, do go on." Mr Dr P quickly stated, directing the conversation back to Ron.

Ron shrugged, and continued.

"As I was saying, my father was a member of the Actuarian Team. While not the best team in the competition, they were a class 'A' team. But what made them formidable was the fact that they were great at calculating the odds in combat. It was this ability that the Backdraft wanted, so they could list the odds on matches to turn betting profits in their favour.

The Backdraft tried to recruit them for over a year, but due to their ability to calculate the odds, they were able to win bets on matches and stay viable. This all came to ahead one day, I was heading off to my then best friends birthday."

Ron paused for a second, and chuckled. "Heh heh, it's funny. She was my best friend; I had spent five years almost constantly at her side doing everything with her. Now I can barely remember her. I remember that she had red hair…"

Kim's eyes had gone wide at what Ron was saying.

"…It was her ninth birthday…I think, I think that I used to call her K.P…"

"NO!"

Kim's yell made everyone look at her; she had gone white as a sheet.

"No, no, it can't be…"

Kim took a step back and caught the heel of her foot, falling backwards and landing on her behind with a thud. She continued to say no as she shook her head, Mrs Dr P reached forward putting her hand on Kim's right shoulder.

"Kimmie…"

She didn't get to finish as Kim shook the hand off turning to her mother.

"It can't be true, it can't be. It's a lie" Kim almost pleaded with her mother.

"Kimmie, it is true…"

"What? You knew, YOU KNEW. And you didn't tell me. Why?"

Mrs Dr P sighed, "Kimmie listen, I only found out this morning when Tim gave me photographic evidence. There hasn't been any time since to tell you, then this happened."

"Photographic evidence? _How_ did he get that?" Kim inquired glaring at the twins.

The twins, confused as anyone else in the room at what Kim was going about, chirped up.

"The first day that Ron…"

"…turned up, Mom asked…"

"…us to de-age a picture of him…"

"…by nine years. Which…"

"…we did."

Ron growing nervous at becoming more the cause of strife than he was, spoke up.

"Uh what did I do, I'm sure whatever it was I didn't mean to. We can work…"

"Shhhh Ron, not now." Kim threw at him without looking at him. She then continued on with her mother.

"You suspected two days ago, and didn't let me know?"

"Girl WTF is going on." Monique exclaimed. She was starting to get exasperated with the gossip that was going on, and the fact that she was out of the loop with said gossip.

Kim sighed, "Its complicated Mon."

"Well…uncomplicate it!"

Kim looked at Monique for a couple of seconds, before sighing again. She then turned towards the screen and walked towards it, while pulling a data chip out from around her neck. Uncapping the data stick, she quickly plugged it into the screen. Pulling up a menu and pulled a picture up onto the screen.

The picture on the screen was of a blond boy with big ears and freckles across his face. He would have been about six years old and dressed in a ballerina costume.

Ron looking at the picture was confused.

"Kim, that's a picture of me. Why do you have a picture of me?"

Without answering Kim changed the picture on the screen, the next picture up was of young Ron standing next to a grumpy redheaded cowgirl of about the same age. Ron walked up to the screen, laying his right hand onto the image of the girl.

"K…P. That's KP, Kim how did you get a picture of me n KP?" he asked in wonder, turning towards the girl beside him.

Kim just shoved Ron in the chest, hard. He staggered back a couple of steps while Kim yelled at him.

"THAT'S ME you idiot. With my best friend!"

Stepping closer to Ron she again struck him on the chest, while yelling at him.

"What happened to you, I waited and waited for you but you didn't turn up…"

Kim continued to strike Ron in the chest, as she started to cry.

"I looked for you, and looked, but I couldn't find you…"

Ron not knowing what to do just enfolded Kim in a hug, as she continued to cry and trying to hit him. He looked over at her parents, who had jumped up at Kim's outburst looking to calm her down.

Mrs Dr P made no move to separate Kim from Ron, and signalled Ron to continue comforting Kim. After a while Kim started to calm down and stopped crying. She stepped back from Ron once she had gotten herself under control.

Mrs Dr P taking Kim by the shoulders led her back to the sofa where she gently pushed Kim down. Once Kim was seated, she turned and headed towards the Kitchen.

Felix after a couple of seconds whistled, "Well that sure complicates things."

"Don't it just." Monique quickly agreed.

Mrs Dr P appeared back from the kitchen with a glass of water and some tissues, which she gave to Kim.

"Here Kim drink this."

Once Kim had drunk some of the water Mrs Dr P turned back towards Ron.

"Well Ron what happened that day, we waited for you to turn up, but you never appeared. Your house was empty, and we could never find anything about you after that."

Ron gathered his thoughts for a few seconds, still rattled that he had apparently just found his best friend. Ron sat down heavily in his chair, before continuing on with his story.

"Um, yes, where was I. That's right; I was just heading out the door to KP'shouse for her birthday. I had just headed down the street when an Iron Kong suddenly grabbed me, naturally I did what any nine year old did when picked up in the fist of an 18 meter tall metal gorilla. I panicked."

"I remember seeing them; I had looked over towards your house. I saw about six of them standing around. One of them appeared to be carrying something in its fist." Kim exclaimed, as images of that day again resurfaced.

"I was wondering what was taking you so long, and had continually looked over. They had milled around the area for about half the time I waited. I never thought anything about them at the time. If only I had gone over sooner like I had planned to when you didn't arrive, I may have been able to raise the alarm."

"Or you could have been taken prisoner like I was, and used against your parents like I was." Ron answered back.

"But I could have…"

"Could a, would a, should a. The world is full of what ifs, what if I had left sooner like I had planned to do. What if I had gotten my parents to take me, instead of walking? Would it have made a difference? Or would you and your parents have joined me 'n' mine as _guests_of the Backdraft."

"But Ron…"

"No buts Kim, its better that it happened this way. At least you didn't have to go through what I did."

"What did they do to you Ron?" Kim asked quietly.

"After they had captured me, they used me as a hostage against my folk, forcing them to come with them. They cleared out all our stuff, and took us to a waiting Whale King. We travelled for several hours in the Whale King before it landed. Don't ask me were we we're taken, all I know is that when we got there we were meet by more guards. I was separated from my parents and taken back onboard the Whale King. They left me down on the cargo bay floor among the Iron Kong's; it is not an experience I want to repeat. Ever."

Ron paused for a second and shivered at the memory, of being on a cold metal floor surrounded by huge metal gorillas.

"After a day more of travel I arrived at what was going to be my home for over two years of my life. We landed on an island somewhere; even now I don't know where the island is that I was taken to. No matter how hard I try to find it, I will find it though. I'm not going to give up till I do. When I do I'm going to level the place, so no other children have to go through that…Hell."

Ron had to stop for a bit to calm down; the memories of the place, even now caused him pain.

"What was that place Ron, What did they do there." Mr Dr P enquired, once Ron had calmed down.

"The guards just called it the Arena; the kids there called it the Pit. It's where the Backdraft trains their pilots, especially young pilots."

"Oh cool…"

"…it's like the…"

"…Academy." The twins enthused.

Ron frowned, "No it's nothing like the Academy. They don't teach you to play games there. They teach you to go to war to fight and win, no matter what. The Academy teaches you teamwork and friendship, respect for your peers and builds up your confidence. The Pit only destroys you, teaches you treachery and that everyone is out to get you. You have no friends at the Pit, only temporary alliances with those that want similar goals as you for the moment. Your status there is based on how much others fear you, or how good a schemer you are."

Ron paused for a second to collect his thoughts, before continuing.

"When I was disembarked from the Whale King, I joined a group of about fifteen other children that had just arrived. Most of them were about fourteen to sixteen years old; I was the youngest one there. It was then that I learned that there were two types of students at the Pit, ones like me, draftees, and those like Eric. Volunteers. We were quickly separated into two groups along those lines; the draftees were given the law. We behave and work hard, or our parents would pay the price.

We were then led into a hanger, and told to get in a zoid. They were all old zoids, if we wanted a better one, we would have to earn it in combat."

"What type of zoid did you get Ron?" Felix inquired.

This was new to him as well, Ron had told him about the kidnapping before but he had never gone into detail about what had happened while with the Backdraft.

Ron chuckled, "You know what zoid I got Felix, after all you're piloting it now."

"The Shield Liger? No way, you've had it that long."

"Yeah, my father had piloted a Shield Liger and had let me pilot his a couple of times when I was growing up. So as soon as I saw one was in the hanger, I went straight for it. Luckily no one else wanted it; as I don't think I would have been able to fight them for it.

We were given an hour to prep our zoids, again I have to thank my father. If not for him insisting on me helping him on his Liger, I don't think I would have been able to get it ready for any type of combat."

"I remember those weekends; they were fun, helping your father go over the weapons systems, thrusters and general maintenance of the Liger. That was fun." Kim reminisced.

"Yeah, I always enjoyed them. Then again I always enjoyed spending time with my best friend." Ron replied.

"Anyway as I was saying, the Shield Ligerwas in pretty rough shape, which is why I don't think anyone else, wanted it. Once the hour was done we had to go out into the battlefield, there were six zoids waiting for us out there. A Lighting Saix, Helcat, Sabre Fang, Red Horn, Hammerock and a Rev Rapter, all piloted by older students. This was to give us our first lession at the Pit, live or die all depended on how well you fought.

During that first battle three of the kids were killed, all of their zoids had been disabled. But the pilot of the Lighting Saix didn't think that was enough and killed them while they were helpless. Then he decided to come after me, I panicked and tripped the Liger. The pilot of the Saix probably would have killed me then and there if it wasn't for the fact that I accidently switched on the shield at the last second trying to get the Liger back to its feet. The Saix hit the shield and careened off, totaling itself.

The head '_instructor_' thought it was a fantastic maneuver, fake a fall and allow the faster zoid to come in and disable itself on the shield..."

"What a minute, you're telling us that _you_ came up with the 'Rotham' feint." Monique interjected.

Ron was confused, "Rotham faint? What's that?"

"That's the name of the manoeuvre that you just described, Eric introduced it to the Academy when he transferred there a year ago." Kim explained.

Ron rolled his eyes, "Eric has to take credit for everything doesn't he. Yes Kim I'm the one that came up with that, although calling it the Rotham faint is accurate. As he kept falling for the manoeuvre, every time I used it. That never got old watching him total himself."

"Hang on, you mean that the pilot of that Saix was..."

"Yes Kim that was my first introduction to Eric. He's held it against me ever since. Eric was the top student at the Pit, not because of his piloting skill. Cause let's face it he's a mediocre pilot at best. No he was top student because even then he was a charmer and a schemer. If he couldn't charm you into his corner, then he would scheme and threaten you and generally make your life miserable. A lot of students, and instructors that got on Eric's bad side ended up having fatal accidents. Most of the students died in battle, their zoid having unexplained mechanical failure that was never questioned.

Eric won battles because better pilots were too afraid to take him down, as Eric would get them back one way or another. When I arrived at the base Eric had already been there for four years, he arrived with another famous Backdraft pilot, Vega Obscura. Where Vega was a natural pilot, Eric was not, he struggled to keep up. Then when Vega was taken to compete in the Royal Cup and Eric wasn't, Eric became even more ruthless in his desire to win and be the best.

Then into this comes a bumbling, lucky nine year old kid that took him down easily. He spent the rest of our time there together, trying to get me."

"How did you survive Ron?"

"I survived by trusting nobody, learning to sleep very lightly, and waking at the drop of a hat. I slept in the Liger, that way no 'unexplained' mechanical faults would occur. Hell I would still be sleeping with my zoid, if it wasn't for Wadebanning me from sleeping in the maintenance bay. He says it's unsafe. No the real way I survived was I gave up... I gave up my past; the memories were dragging me down… I gave up my future, dreams got you killed. I gave up being Stoppable and became Unstoppable. Most of all I gave up hope, hope was the biggest killer of all. I saw many pilots die because they weren't paying attention to what was happening. They were too busy hoping that someone would come and rescue them.

No little red headed firecracker was coming to rescue me; my parents weren't going to come to get me. There was no rescue, and no escape. They never gave us any flying or water based zoids. If I wanted to get out of there, I would have to do it myself. The only way I could do that was to live in the now, and fight. The better you fought the better equipment you got, the better food and living quarters.

While I'm not proud of what I did there to survive, I am proud to say that I never killed anybody while I was there. If I had done that I would have become just like Eric, I think. But the main reason that I survived was because I got lucky, almost two and a half years after I arrived we were set to have a battle royal. All the senior students were to participate, me included. Over forty students were to compete, by the time Eric was done sabotaging zoids, and injuring pilots. There were only twenty two pilots competing, Eric, me and fifteen pilots loyal to Eric, and five neutrals. They had managed to avoid their zoids being sabotaged by following my lead and sleeping with their zoids."

"Shit Ron-man, how did you get out of that one?"

"The only way I could Felix, I kept moving and got very, very lucky. Using their numbers against them and using the terrain to my advantage. It took over two hours before there was only two zoids left on the field, Eric and me. Over two years of competing against one another and there we were facing off, Eric fresh as he had just watched for the entire battle. Most likely because he wouldn't want to get his hands dirty with the grunt work, preferring to lead from behind. 'N' me tired 'n' beaten, my zoid was barely functional. And what was the first thing Eric did, that's right he rushed me, again. Once more he fell for the '_Rotham faint'_. Never get tired of that.

The real luck that day was that we had '_guest's_' watching the battle, mainly Vega Obscura and his minders."

"No way, you meet with Vega Obscura." Exclaimed Felix

"Meet with him Felix; I spent the next four years traveling and training with him. He was impressed with how I handled my zoid in the battle and wanted me to train with him."

"HOLY MOTHER OF GOD! You trained with Vega Obscura." (Mon)

"No way Ron-man. You trained with 'The King'?" (Felix)

"You saw the Berserk Fury, What's it like?" (Mr Dr P)

"What's Vega like?" (Kim)

"We thought he was…"

"…jailed at the end of…"

"…the Cup battle, that's…"

"…why he dissapeared."

At Ron's last statement the room had turned into bedlam, with everyone in the room jumping up and shouting questions at Ron. Not giving him any room to answer.

"QUIET!"

The room went still, and everyone turned to the source of the enforced calm. Mrs. Dr P just calmly sat back down.

"That's better; I think you will find your questions will be better answered if you give Ron room to breath."

Mrs Dr P then turned to Ron.

"I think you can proceed now Ron, without further interruptions from the peanut gallery."

Ron looked slightly shaken.

"Um, thanks Mrs. Dr. P."

Ron went quiet for a bit as the rest of the room resumed their seats.

"As I was saying, Vega Obscura and his minder, Sarah, were there with the rest of the team he was working with. Turns out, at the end of the Royal Cup Vega was cleared of any involvement with the takeover attempt. Mainly due to him being only thirteen at the time, and only being a pilot. That ruled him out of being one of the planers; the ZBC couldn't really charge him with anything so they banned him from competing. Worst mistake they could have made in my mind. If they had continued to allow him to compete, then the ZBC could have kept an eye on him and the skill level of zoid pilots would have improved a lot more with people pushing themselves to keep up with him. The other consequence was the new ruling by the ZBC that no pilot under the age of sixteen was allowed to compete, again to avoid another situation like at the Royal Cup.

That's beside the point though; I was taken on by Vega and was to work with the Fuma team in protecting Alteil and Monkey Fist as they carried out their digs."

"Um excuse me 'Monkey Fist? Alteil? Who are they?" interrupted Mrs Dr P

"Monkey Fist, more commonly known as Lord Montgomery Fisk and Alteil are archaeologist's in the Backdraft's employ. Where Alteil is interested in Ultimate X zoids, Monkey boy is interested in Organoids."

"Um, I thought Ultimate X's had Organoid's in them, what's the difference between them?" Monique enquired.

Mr Dr P spoke up before Ron could answer.

"An Ultimate X has what is called an 'Integrated Organoid System'. Built directly into the Zoid's core, the Organoid system is actually an extremely advanced, self supporting artificial intelligence program. The Organoid system allows the Ultimate X to think and learn on its own; every time an Ultimate X is defeated, it emerges with even greater strength than before. This was seen in the final battle of the Royal Cup eleven years ago, where both the Liger Zero and the Berserk Fury's Organoid systems rapidly countered each other's attacks and increased their speed and power as the battle went on. In addition, only special "chosen ones" can pilot and bring out the full potential of an Ultimate X, such as Bit Cloud and Vega Obscura.

While Organoids are a special type of Zoid, Organoids are much smaller than regular Zoids, around the size of a small horse. Ancient Zoidians and Organoids have a special connection, to each other and Organoids are usually companions to Ancient Zoidian's. Although Organoids are extremely varied and possess all manner of different special abilities, Organoids tend to have a base set of special powers. Flight, Zoid Fusion, Zoidian Fusion, Independent control, Metamorphosis and Zoid Resurrection. It's unknown what connection the two have in common, if any connection. It may simply be because the Ultimate X system mimics what an Organoid does. But it is commonly believed that Organoid's are extent."

Everyone digested the information once Mr. Dr P was finished.

"Um yeah, what he said. So there we were, traveling from site to site looking through ancient ruins for any signs of further Ultimate X's or Organoid's. We found a lot of old zoids, like the Madthunder that we fought today. We never seemed to find another Ultimate X or Organoid's though. Then four years after joining up with them my past came back to haunt me in the shape of Eric. We were at our latest site and were preparing to leave, I was auguring with Alteil that there was an Ultimate X at this site, and he was saying that there was nothing. When a recruiting team hailed us that they were incoming, they needed us to hold their latest 'recruit'.

Turns out this recruit was Wade, a ten year old genius. His parents had objected to the recruitment, so they had been killed. Monkey Fist objected to us holding the boy as it would compromise the work the team was doing. The objection was overruled when Eric contacted the Count, and we were ordered to look after the boy. When he was leaving he ran into me again, and whether he didn't like the fact I was on the archeology team, or he was still resentful that I had beaten him I don't know. But he all too happily told me that my parent's had been in an '_accident'_, and were now_ dead._ I'll never forget the smug look on the bastard's face as he told me; it made him all too happy to give me the bad news. I've always wondered if he wasn't responsible for the accident.

Well with my parents dead, there was no reason for me to stay with the Backdraft. So I made plans to escape that very afternoon. As I was going to get my zoidprepped to escape, I came across Wade in the hold being overseen by members of the Fumateam. Here was this ten year old kid, with his parents just killed being held in the hold of a Whale King. I was just having flashbacks to how I was recruited. Making up my mind, then and there, on the spot to take Wade with me I told the Fuma team members that I had been sent to lookafter Wade. Once they had left, I got Wade to follow me as I made my way further into the hold towards my Shield Liger. As we got there I noticed a Hover Cargo, we had had it for a while but I had never paid it much attention. Heading into it with Wade I quickly mademy way onto the bridge to see what it was like. Found out quickly that the Cargo was busted, that was why it was never used. I was about to leave in disgust and proceed back to the original plan when Wade spoke up and told me he could fix the Cargo easily enough.

So I left him to fix the Cargo while I loaded up my Shield Liger, plus another one that was there. I also got the Dibisonas well, and then I went up to the Whale Kings main deck. While I was there I checked where everyone was, and those of the Fumateam that were around the cargo hold I sent to different areas of the Whale King. Then grabbing the maps of the site and what books I could, as well as my own gear I headed back to the Cargo. When I got there Wade was waiting for me, he had repaired the Cargo easily enough. So we eased the Hover Cargo out and headed into the ruins. We went towards an area of the ruins that I had noticed, it was a closed off section that was partially hidden and easily overlooked. It was the area that I had been arguing with Alteil over, as I thought that there was an attached chamber in the area.

We stayed there for a couple of days hiding, while we were there I checked out my theory about the hidden chamber. Sure enough the chamber was there, and in it was two zoids. One badly beaten up and the other was Rufus. The chamber had partially collapsed, which had damaged the zoids. So we salvaged the zoids and went over them. That's when we discovered that one of them was an Ultimate X."

Everyone gasped at this news.

"If I'm to believe what you're saying Ronald, you own an Ultimate X zoid." Mr. Dr P stated.

"That's right; needed work, but yes I own an Ultimate X." Ron responded.

'_Rufus, it must be Rufus, that explains why it's so good.'_ Kim thought to herself.

"Anyway we were doing a check of the zoids; the damaged one had too much damage doneto the body. The core was finethough. The other, well you've seen Rufus for yourself." Ron said with pride.

"Anyway we waited for a week at the site, then when we thought it was clear we took off. We ended up at Hammer Bay, where I got a job at the Battlefield. I stayed there full time until I turned sixteen, that's when I tried to get a team going. It was shortly after this I meet Felix, Reger and Tara. The rest as they say is history."

Everyone was quiet after Ron finished talking, pondering what he had told them. It was quite a story, bringing to light a darker side to zoid battles that everyone had hoped to see the end of eleven years ago.

"Ron." Kim quietly called.

"Yeah Kim, what's up?" Ron responded to Kim.

"What I don't get is, if you were only nine years old why did they put you in the cockpit of a zoid. That's far too young to do so; the Battle Commission would never allow that."

Kim was puzzled by the fact that a nine year old was put into battle; she just couldn't understand how that was possible.

"Kim, these guys don't care about your age. All you are to them is another solider to train. They don't care if you live or die, just that at the end of it you are loyal to them and are ready to do whatever they tell you."

"But, if you are dead, how will they be able to hold your parents? And why do they need soldiers?" Kim asked in confusion.

"Kim, I never saw my parents at all during the six almost seven years that I was with them. But I did what they said, in the hopes I would see them again. Who knows when they died, was it the year that Eric told me? Was it the year before, or the one before that? Who knows? I don't, I just continued on in the hope that I would see them again. I'm sure the parents of the kids that died did the same, even without proof of them being alive. After all what else can you do?

As for why they need soldiers, Kim they tried to take over once. They are going to do it again; it's not a matter of if. It's a matter of when. Only this time it's not going to be one zoid in the Royal Cup, this time it's going to be an army of the most powerful zoids they can find. They already have three Geno Saurer's, and a Berserk Fury. Who knows what else they will have, hell when I left there were rumors of them assembling a team of scientists to try and resurrect one of the most powerful zoid's of all time. Plus they are looking for all the Ultimate X zoid's and Organoid's that they can."

"No they can't be looking to resurrect the Death Saurer, that's suicide. It can't be controlled." Mr. Dr P exclaimed.

The Death Saurer was the ultimate zoid, a continent killer. Most lay the death of the ancient Zoidian race on the first Death Saurer. It had been resurrected twice before, both times with the same results. Mass death both to the side that resurrected it, and their enemies, as it ran amok. Smaller clones of it had been made as well; these were more controllable than the original but still hard to control. It was only through the development of the Madthunders that they had been stopped.

The Geno Saurer had been developed based on the Death Saurer, so that a similar zoid could be used that was controllable. With such a force of zoids at their command, the Backdraft would be near unstoppable. That type of firepower in the hands of the Backdraft didn't bear thinking about.

Looking to change the subject, Mrs Dr P spoke up.

"Ron, what about your schooling during all this?"

"The Backdraft did lesions in the morning when I was at the Pit, and Sarah tutored me when I was with Vega, same as she tutored him. Plus I learned a lot from Altiel." Ron replied.

"What's Vega like as a person Ron?" Kim enquired

"Scary, don't get me wrong. He's the nicest person you'll meet; he'd give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. But at the same time he'll kill you without thinking about it. Zoid battles are all a game to him, he doesn't care if he wins or loses as long as he has fun."

"Hey Ron, I thought you said that you gave up hope." Monique asked

"I did, why?"

"Well you just said that you lived in hope that you would see you parents again." Monique replied.

"..."

"And another thing, you said that you could wake at the drop of a hat. If that's the case, how come it took so long for us to wake you this morning?" Monique continued.

"Oh that, I woke as soon as you walked into the room. I didn't register you as a threat, so I went back to sleep." Ron replied flippantly

"You went _back_ to sleep after we walked in?" Kim asked with a slight edge in her voice.

"Well yeah. It was far too early to get up." Ron replied not noticing the edge in Kim's voice.

Kim stood and started to slowly advance towards Ron.

"You went _**back**_ to sleep." Kim stated as she continued to advance on Ron.

Ron starting to notice the edge in Kim's voice, and that she was crossing the room towards him. Although he would have put it more as a stalk towards him, he slowly stood up edging towards the door slightly.

"Yumm, yeah. I went back to sleep." Ron replied warily.

"You made us work for twenty minutes trying to _wake_you up, and you had gone _**back**_ to sleep!"

"Eep"

Kim had lunged at Ron at sleep; he had just managed to duck to the side. Heading towards the door at a full sprint with Kim in close pursuit. Once they had disappeared through the door, everyone just stared at it expecting them to reappear. Either Ron still running from Kim, or Kim with Ron's head in hand.

Barely a couple of minutes had passed when the Hover Cargo suddenly lurched and came to a very quick halt. Wade's image appeared on the front screen.

"What are Kim and Ron up to? They just went out the rear hatch. Don't they know how dangerous that is when we are moving at speed? Especially on foot." Wade exclaimed.

Monique just chuckled, "Not as dangerous as a certain Redhead catching a Blondie would be. What are they doing now?"

Wade looked slightly confused at Monique's last statement but answered anyway.

"Well, Kim's doing 27 Kph, and Ron's doing 27.23 Kph."

"Heh, he won't be able to keep that up. She'll catch him before long." Monique chuckled.

"Nah, she hasn't a chance of catching Ron." Felix responded with a smile.

Monique looked at Felix a second before responding. "Double or nothing?"

"How do you double wearing a bikini? Unless you wear less!" Felix responded with a sly smile.

"Get your mind out of the gutter boy. No, I'll wear the bikini all day serving you. Deal?"

"Deal. What's the details."

"Kim will catch Ron within ten kilometers." Monique quickly stated.

"Oh you are so on, there is no way Kim will catch Ron inside of ten K." Felix responded with a smile.

Mr Dr P looked over at his wife, "So does this mean we're not picking the kids up?"

"No dear, we'll let them run for a bit. It'll do Kim good, especially with all the cake she's been eating in the last two days. Where did Ron get those two cakes? He couldn't have gotten them from Battlefield as they were too fresh. Not to mention that it's hard enough to get one cake let alone two." Mrs Dr P wondered aloud.

"Oh that's easy Mrs Possible, Ron baked them." Felix answered while making his way over to the big screen.

Everyone turned to stare at Felix.

"Let me get this straight Felix, Ron baked those cakes." Mrs Dr P inquired of Felix.

Felix looked over his shoulder at Mrs Dr P, not seeing what the fuss was about.

"Um yeah, he invented them."

"Felix, do me a favor and don't tell Kim that."

"Um sure…Why?"

"Felix you know how Kim is with those cakes, can you imagine what she'll do to Ron once she finds out."

The twins let out an evil laugh at the thought of Kim finding out about Ron's baking skills.

"She'll be powerless…"

"…before him, she'll bow…"

"…down and worship him as…"

"…a god…"

"Or she'll lock him in the kitchen and force him to bake endless cakes." Monique interrupted the twins before they got carried away with their fantasies.

"Either way it'll be worth selling tickets to." Felix finished with a smirk on his face.

ZNCP

* * *

Next: The Blue Fox.

The comments at the end concering Kims reaction to Ron's baking, I thank my reviewers for the suggestions.

Hammerock is a Gorilla-type, the predecessor to Iron Kong, is a third the size.

Helcat - Panther-type

Sabre Fang - Tiger type

Red Horn - Styracosaurus type, the predecessor to Dark Horn

Iron Kong – Gorilla type

Rev Rapter is a Velociraptor-type

Berserk Fury – T-Rex type, a very powerful zoid. Like the Liger Zero its amour can be changed.

Geno Saurer – T-Rex type, very powerful. Built based on the Death Saurer. Predecessor to Geno Breaker, which is the predecessor to the Berserk Fury. All are armed with a CPC


	5. The Blue Fox

**Kim Possible: Zoids - New Century**** Possible.**

_Disclaimer: Disney owns Kim Possible, Tomy owns Zoids, Kim Possible: Zoids – New Century plot line owned by 'Blue Kiwi'._

**Chapter 5: The Blue Fox**

* * *

Kim and Monique were taking the opportunity to visit the local malls, with a stopover in Hammer Bay after the battle with the D Hall'ers. They had gone into their sixth shop of the morning looking at shoes, when the girls heard a quiet.

"Awww man, how much longer. I'm starving." Coming from the seats behind them

Looking over her shoulder, Monique took in the image of Team Possible's newest member Ron 'Unstoppable'. She still couldn't get over what he had told them yesterday, about his history with the Backdraft. She was surprised that he was as relatively normal as he was, all things considered.

"How can you possibly be hungry, you just had breakfast a couple of hours ago." Monique asked the tow headed boy.

"Hey I need fuel to keep me going, otherwise I'll fade away. Hey there's a Bueno Nacho just down the street." Ron replied, seemingly gaining more energy at the mention of Bueno Nacho.

"You eat that junk and _you'll_ get fat and slow." Kim threw at Ron.

"Hey _you_ weren't able to catch me yesterday, and I've been eating it forever." Ron shot back at Kim.

Monique looked a bit put out at that last remark, but didn't say anything she just looked over at Felix. Monique saw a big grin appear on Felix's face, at Ron's remark.

"Um you know Ron and me don't really need to be here with you two." Felix quickly shot in.

"And where are _you_, wanting to get to in such a hurry _Felix._" Monique asked fearing the answer.

"Oh, um, just you know, have this thing that I need to do. Um we need to do, you know how it is." Felix replied looking everywhere but at Monique.

"No I don't know how it is. Why don't you tell me? _**Now**_!" Monique demanded.

Felix continued to look anywhere but at Monique.

"You remember Felix; you said you needed to get a new camera. You wanted to get that new hi-definition one that just came out." Ron put in helpfully.

Felix just groaned as he slapped his forehead.

Monique did not believe what she had just heard.

"Oh there is _**no**_ way you are taking photos. You may have won the bet, but you are not recording it in _any _way shape or form Felix. _IF_ I find out you have taken just _one_ photo you're a _**dead**_ man. You understand me Felix."

Kim just raised her eyebrow at Monique, while Ron just looked confused. Monique figgered it was time for some girl talk, judging from the expression on Kim's face so she thought she would give the boys a break.

"Felix, Ron looks like he's about to expire if he doesn't get some food. Why don't you take him to BN, and we'll meet you there in an hour… Ok two." Monique quickly added once she saw the horrified expression on Kim's face at cutting the shopping short.

Felix, knowing a get out of jail free card when he saw one, quickly about faced and motored out of the store calling out over his shoulder.

"Right'o, see you there in two hours, come on Ron lets _roll_."

Monique watched as Ron was turning to follow Felix, she quickly glanced at Kim. Seeing that she was occupied with the shoes in front of her, Monique quickly closed the gap between herself and Ron, whispering in his ear.

"Although if _you _want to take a few photos, that'd be just fine."

Before turning back to Kim.

Monique continued to watch for a few minutes as Kim went through the shoes in front of her. Monique could tell that there was definitely something bugging Kim, as she had been staring at the same shoes and swapping them about for the last twenty minutes without really seeing what she was doing.

"So girl are you going to tell me what's wrong or do I have to guess?" Monique asked Kim.

Kim barely looked up at Monique as she answered. "What makes you think anything's wrong?"

"You haven't even paid attention to the shopping this morning, you've been distracted and out of sorts. So again what's wrong?"

"I have been paying attention Monique." Kim replied, now giving Monique her full attention.

"Really, then why are we in the _men's_ shoe section?" Monique replied.

Kim just continued to look at Monique, blinking slowly for a couple of seconds. Before she slowly looked around, sure enough they were standing before men's sneakers. Kim blushed at being caught out.

She sighed before she went on. "I was just thinking about what Ron told us yesterday. You really think that happened Monique, or is he spinning us a line?"

Monique raised an eyebrow, "Kim you confirmed parts of the story yourself, as for the rest of it. Yeah I think it happened, it explains far too much."

"How so Mon?"

"Well, you know how he pulls off those moves of his in battle at the last second, that you almost think its luck."

"Yeah." Kim answered wondering were Monique was going with this.

"What if it wasn't luck? What if he had planned it all out? What if he was just hiding what he was truly capable of?"

Kim stopped to think about that for a couple of minutes before answering.

"No I don't think that's the case, he plans. But not in depth, that would lock him in to a set course to much. I get the feeling he's more, go with the flow, and adjusts as needs be."

Kim paused for a few seconds before she continued.

"Monique, do you trust him?"

Monique paused before answering Kim. It wasn't that she was hesitating on the answer; she was just wondering what Kim wanted to know. Obviously this was getting closer to what was truly bothering her.

"Of course I trust Ron, Kim; he didn't need to help us. Just like he didn't need to tell us he was in the Backdraft. Why?"

Kim looked at the ground and asked quietly

"Do you trust me Monique?"

Well this was new, definitely not what Monique was expecting.

"Of course I do, I wouldn't be on the team if I didn't. Even if you do, prove to be frustrating at times. Why do you ask?"

"Just wondering…Monique would you have left the team yesterday if I had just blown up at Ron and told him to leave?"

"Now what brought this on Kim?" Monique asked, wondering what _had_ happened to bring this line of questioning on.

"Well yesterday, before the team meeting Felix had a talk with me. He basically threatened to kick me off the team, and that you would have gone with him."

"Ah so that's what he talked to you about beforehand. I was wondering." Monique answered with an understanding of what was bothering Kim.

Kim was a very outgoing and adventuress person, but she was also insecure. She needed the approval of her peers; with Felix challenging Kim like that he was basically telling her that the team didn't approve of her. This in turn hit her insecurities dead centre.

"Well Monique, would you have gone with them?" Kim asked again when Monique didn't answer her.

"Truthfully, I don't know Kim. I might have."

Seeing the shocked expression on Kim's face Monique hurried to explain.

"Look Kim, if you had of gone off at him without letting him explain the situation then you would have been out of line. After all he didn't _need_ to tell us, it must have been scary for him to do so. _Especially_ right after Eric, after all that was enough to mistrust anybody associated with the Backdraft directly or indirectly. But he did, if he had hidden it and not told us. Or tried to purposely misdirect us, then sure you would have been justified. But he didn't hide it, he told us straight up"

Monique paused to collect her thoughts before continuing.

"He may not be the boy you remember as a child Kim, but if you give him a chance you may just find your friend again. After all, _you've_ been going on as long as I've known you on how much you missed him."

Kim smiled at the last remark.

"Yeah I'm sure you're right Monique, it's just that it's been so _long_. What if there's nothing of the boy I knew left. After all he's been through, what if he's changed too much?"

"Of course I'm right, just give him a chance. You might find that it's just what you need, what he needs to. A friend that won't judge him, on what he did to survive." Monique answered.

After a minute of silence, Monique looked at Kim seeing that she was still a little in the dumps.

"You know what you need Kim, you need to go out on a date." Monique declared to Kim

Kim just looked sceptical, "With whom, Ron?"

Monique smiled rather indulgently, "Nah, I was thinking with somebody else… I heard through the grapevine that Tara and Josh had broken up."

Kim smiled suddenly with a far off look in her eye. "Really I hadn't heard that, well… that's news."

Monique just smiled as she contemplated the future of the team's newest member.

"By the way, Monique, haven't you sorted that bet out with Felix yet?"

Kim asked, interrupting Monique's musing.

Monique snorted in disgust. "I went double or nothing with him, and lost. _Again_."

"Oh, what happened?" Kim asked, curious as to what they had bet on this time.

"My pony fell over and needed to be picked up, must've been from all that cake she's been eating lately."

Kim at least had the decency to blush at that…

ZNCP

Ron and Felix had been cruising the shopping area, after a quick stop at Bueno Nacho for a 'snack' for Ron. Now they were outside of the Battlefield, reminiscing over past victory celebrations. Ron for most of his Zoid Battle Commission career had been based out of Hammer Bay. There had been too many memories of what had happened at Middleton for him to ever go back there for more than a stopover. He had even purchased land in the hill country surrounding Hammer Bay in a secluded cove north of the city. There had been a few times were he had taken Team Unstoppable to the area to celebrate after a victory.

Unbeknownst to Felix, Ron had made out with Tara on the last of those occasions, as a goodbye of sorts before she returned for the final semester at the Academy. Tara was going to join another team upon graduating, with her best friend.

Just as Ron and Felix were about to head back to Bueno Nacho to meet up with the other half of Team Possible, they were approached by another young man. He would have been about Eric's age; height and build with slicked back hair and expensive designer clothes on, and with a bored look on his face.

"You there, you are the valet parking person yes. You will get my sinker for me."

The man said to Ron holding out a number.

"Um, no. Sorry you have the wrong person. I'm a pilot with Team Possible." Ron replied.

The young man facing them suddenly looked slightly less bored.

"You are a Team Possible person, ah how fortunate. How is my Blue Fox?"

Ron had no idea what this person was on about. There was just one Fox on the team, and that was his Shadow Fox. It was black not blue. Oh well it surely was a mistake on this guys part, easily fixed.

"I'm not sure what you're talking about. The only Fox on the team belongs to me."

The young man suddenly looked outraged at Ron.

"_No_! The Blue Fox is my perfect partner; you are mistaken to call my Blue Fox yours. This I will not allow."

Upon saying that Ron suddenly found the right side of his face was stinging, as the young man had given him a backhanded slap across his cheek.

"You Team Possible person are a cad. I challenge you to a zoid battle; the winner takes the Blue Fox."

Ron didn't know what to make of the man standing before him. Not only was he claming Ron's Shadow Fox was his, he was challenging him to a fight over it. This had to be a dream, as this sort of stuff only happened in the movies.

"No."

"What? You are refusing my challenge, are you a coward or just afraid that I will embarrass you in front of my Blue Fox."

Ron was starting to get annoyed with this…person.

"Look, I don't know what your problem is, but the answer is no. The Fox is mine, and I won't put it up as the prize in some random zoid battle." Ron replied.

The young man in front of Ron looked thoughtful for a few seconds. Ron had to admit that it looked like an effort for the man in front of him. He didn't know what scared him more, him looking mad or thoughtful.

"I see what is happening; you want to know what you will get out of the battle. Oh that is easy; you will be paid lots of money for your efforts if you should win. Or the zoid of your choice, you decide as long as my blue fox is my reward for winning."

This guy just didn't get it.

"No, look I'm sure you're a nice person and all. But you don't have anything I want. The fox is mine, and that's the end of it."

With that Ron turned on his heel and walked off, leaving the young man staring at his back. Felix was caught off guard; he didn't expect Ron to just leave like that. He took off after Ron, catching up with him quickly.

Ron looked over at Felix, noticing that Felix was laughing…hard.

"What are you laughing at Felix, that wasn't funny? Imagine him claiming my Shadow Fox is his." Ron said in a disgruntled voice to Felix.

At this Felix, if anything started to laugh harder. Ron not knowing what the joke was just stopped walking, and looked at Felix. Not saying a word till Felix had gotten himself under control.

"So what's so funny Felix? Have I got diablo sauce on my shirt? Cause that's happened before, it was so embarrassing. I walked around all day before it was pointed out to me."

Felix couldn't help smirking a bit.

"Do you know _who_ that was you were just talking to Ron?" Felix asked.

"Some rich pretty boy, trying to claim my Shadow Fox?" Ron answered in a confused voice.

"Nah, well yeah but nah."

"Uh, say what? Is that a yes or a no, because honestly I couldn't tell from that answer."

"That Ron was Señor Senior, Jr, although everybody just calls him Junior. His father's a multi-billionaire who, indulges his every whim. Anyway, Junior wants to become a huge zoids star so his father hired some zoid pilot to train him. He's pretty good to by all accounts. One of the top placed 'B' class pilots."

Felix paused for a second to see if Ron was keeping up.

"O.k. Felix, that's fine. But what's that got to do with my Shadow Fox?" Ron queried.

"Nothing, he probably doesn't even know that you have a Shadow Fox. Although he more than likely has one of his own, He has over fifty zoids in his island complex that he picks and chooses from for battles."

"O.k… so what was he going on about with his 'Blue' Fox?" Ron was suddenly very confused with the entire subject.

"He was referring to Kim. Over a year ago this craze was going round called Animology, turned out that Kim was a 'Blue Fox'. Apparently the Blue Fox was Junior's soul mate; he hasn't been able to get over it and has been chasing Kim since."

"Oh, well, yeah…"

There wasn't much more Ron could add to that, so the two of them just headed off to Bueno Nacho to meet the girls.

ZNCP

Eric was scared; he was standing before Lord Monty Fisk over the failure of his latest recruitment. Eric had no doubt in his mind that Fisk was insane, or that he would kill him without hesitation. Rumours were that at some stage prior to joining the Backdraft he had paid someone to do genetic modifications to him. It was hard to tell what had been done to him, as looking at him there was no discernable alterations.

Fisk was a tall man, standing just slightly taller than Eric himself, when he stood to his full height. Fisk had a habit of slouching forward as if to walk on his hands. He had a wiry build with black hair. He was descended from Lords whose ancestry dated back to the height of the Empires power.

At the moment he was pacing in front of Eric clearly enraged at the failure to recruit Dr Possible.

"This _failure_ is unacceptable, do you realise how important Dr Possible was to Project Rebirth. Without him you have put us months behind schedule. What do have to say for yourself?" Fisk was so enraged spittle hit Eric as he was being yelled at.

"It wasn't my fault, all was going…"

Eric didn't get to finish his statement, as Fisk backhanded him across the face with surprising strength. The blow sent Eric back, almost knocking him over. Eric brought his hand up to the right corner of his mouth feeling blood start to trickle out of his lip.

He was about to hit out at Fisk for the blow, when movement caught his eye from just behind where Alteil was sitting. Eric couldn't see who it was, but was pretty sure it was Fukushima standing there. Fisk had taken him on as his personal bodyguard after Eric had gotten him to turn traitor to the Yamanouchi Team when he had tried to recruit them. He had even gone so far as to now pilot the same zoid as Fisk, an Iron Kong.

"There is no excuse for this failure. We gave you more than enough time to bring them in. The Backdraft expects results, _not excuses._" Fisk bit out at Eric.

"The loser interfered again. Same as with the Yamanouchi team's recruitment." Eric threw at Fisk

This clearly took Fisk off guard; he wasn't expecting the team to get outside help. Let alone help from the deserter.

"You call him a loser _Eric_, and yet Unstoppable keeps defeating you. Over, and over and over again. So what does that make you, _Eric...Well Eric?_"

Eric was taken by surprise; he wasn't expecting this smooth voice to answer him. But he shouldn't have been surprised; after all he was the loser's mentor. He had always championed him.

Eric turned and looked over to where the voice had come from, and sure enough there was Vega Obscura with his 'career' beside him Sarah. Vega was as tall as Eric, although not as broad in the shoulders, with long black hair. He was, although Eric would never admit it, better looking then Eric.

"He got lucky Vega, that's all" Eric venomously threw at Vega.

"Oh yes his famous _luck_. So how many times is it now that he's gotten _lucky_ against you Eric? 50, 60, 70 times? How many times does he have to beat you before you admit he's just that much better than _you_."

"It wasn't my fault; he had some type of new zoid. Kind of like a Liger Zero, we weren't prepared for it. He had taken out over half the team before we knew it." Eric winged

"_That's_ not possible. There is no way any zoid is capable of that. Your lies won't save you Eric." Fisk exclaimed.

"Although I would be loath to stay the hand of Eric's _fate_, I must point out that the Berserk Fury and Bit's Liger Zero _are_ more than capable of doing that." Vega calmly interjected.

Alteil was becoming more interested now in the conversation than he had been. Although truth to tell he wasn't that keen on Project Rebirth.

"Yes but both the Liger Zero and Berserk Fury are Ultimate X's, so it is expected that they do that, but this zoid. How would that be possible, unless…do you have any coverage of the fight Eric."

Eric was taken off guard by this sudden change in focus.

"Um, no I don't Alteil." Seeing Fisk turning on him he quickly added, "Although it would be an easy matter to get the coverage. As a listed ZBC team member, I have full access to coverage of any past battle, I can have it shortly."

"Well what are you waiting for fool, get it now." Fisk threw at him.

Eric quickly went over to the computer controls and started typing, after a few minutes of this he turned back to Alteil.

"Ok the coverage is coming in now."

"Well?" Fisk enquired.

"Well what?" Eric returned.

"Do we have to do _all_ your thinking for you fool, play it on the screen." Fisk growled at Eric.

Within seconds the battle was on the big screen in the front of the room. Everyone watched quietly as Team Possible launched from the Hove Cargo, first a Lighting Saix, then a Shield Liger followed by a Dibison. It was when the final member of Team possible appeared that conversation started again.

"What is that Alteil?" Eric heard Sarah ask.

"It's a _Heterocephalus Motownus_; they were developed at the same time as the Liger Zero. Only about fifteen were ever produced, the company that designed it was beaten out in the military contract by the Zero as Ligers were proven very capable and adaptable with the Shield and Blade Liger's." Alteil replied.

They continued to watch as the Judge started the fight, and seconds later Eric's Saix was disabled.

"STOP. Replay that attack." Vega commanded

The computer took the stream back to just before the attack on the Saix and restarted. Eric watched again as his Saix was totalled with an underhand swipe of claws, and shuddered at how close they had gotten to him.

"Replay again, at quarter speed." Vega once more ordered.

Again the attack was played back, this time in slow motion; Eric didn't know what the fuss was about. The attack didn't change with the replay.

"Well Vega have you seen what you needed to?" Sarah asked.

"No not quite, I will need to see more than this. But this I can tell you, it seems as if Unstoppable has finally upgraded to a zoid worthy of his skills. Computer resume playing at normal speed." Vega replied.

The group continued to watch as the Dark Horn was disabled next, followed by the Spino Sapper. Interest reached a high as the Motownus switched to the Panzer amour.

"Computer freeze image." Fisk ordered as the hybrid cannons opened up on the Madthunder.

"This cannot be allowed, this is obviously the zoid from the site were he disserted. It is the property of the Backdraft, we need it back." Fisk proclaimed.

"Not a good idea, remember what happened when we tried to take the Liger Zero away from Bit Cloud. It went berserk when any other pilot tried to pilot it. I would guess the same would be for this zoid if we tried to take it from Unstoppable." Sarah interjected.

Fisk just looked disgusted with the thought of leaving the zoid with the buffoon.

"Well we can't just leave an Ultimate X with a pilot that's not part of the Backdraft." Fisk shot back.

"We don't know that it is an Ultimate X, if it's not why go to the bother of getting it in if it's of no use to us." Vega objected

Vega then turned to Eric.

"You have new orders Eric, test that zoid. Push it to the brink; we need to know if it's an Ultimate X."

Eric just smiled

"This mean, that I'll get the Berserk Fury?" He asked.

"The Berserk Fury will only let _**me**_ pilot it, Eric." Vega answered coldly.

"You have the full resources of the Backdraft at your disposal; push him to his limit Eric." Alteil continued before Vega ended up killing Eric.

"Yes Alteil, I'll break him for the Backdraft." Eric replied with unhidden delight.

With that Eric turned and hurried from the room. Once he was gone Sarah turned to Vega.

"I thought you didn't want Unstoppable harmed?"

Vega just snorted, "Like _Eric_ has a chance against Ron, no matter _what_ he's piloting. No Ron will be fine, plus we will see the full capabilities of this zoid."

Just then the screen showing the image of the Motounus in the Panzer amour was replaced with the image of an elder gentleman with long greying hair and round tinted glasses on.

"If the zoid proves more than a match for Eric then what Vega?" the man on the screen asked.

"Then Count, I'll fight Ron myself in the Berserk Fury." Vega replied with calm to the supreme leader of the Backdraft.

"If he performs as expected, then we bring him back into the Backdraft." Alteil continued.

"Yes that was the plan, but we were expecting him to be the pilot of Project Rebirth. If we bring him back now with this new zoid what then?" The Count enquired.

"Why then we simply use the core of this zoid as Project Rebirth's core, after all if it has already bonded with its pilot then it will be easier to control." Fisk finished before breaking into a maniacal laugh.

"Are we certain we will be able to bring the boy back into the Backdraft's fold?" the Count asked, ignoring Fisk's laughter.

"Yes quite sure, as this is what we planned all along when we allowed him to escape." Alteil answered.

"Good, good proceed as planed then." With that the Count's image disappeared from the screen.

Nobody noticed Vega's reaction as the meeting ended, one of disgust.

ZNCP

Junior arrived home in a depressed state, after parking up his Sinker in the hanger he headed inside the main complex. His family home was a huge complex built on an island about 200 km out from Hammer Bay.

Heading out towards the pool Junior heard his father's cultured voice coming from inside the main living area.

"Son is that you, I wasn't expecting you back so soon."

Junior headed into where his father was. As he arrived in the main living room Junior noticed a short stout man with red hair and a beard in a skirt. He paid him no heed and went straight over to his father.

"Poppy the Team Possible person was rude and mean to me when I meet him in town. Then when I challenged him to a fight he said no, as I had nothing he wanted." Junior winged to his father.

"Who was this person that was rude to you son?" Senior replied in his cultured voice.

"He was a member of Team Possible, I challenged him for being rude to me but he refused. He wouldn't accept no matter what I offered."

"N who was ta scoundrel tat refused ya challenge laddie?" came a highland twang from Senior's guest.

Junior looked over at his father's guest with confusion clearly written on his face.

"Forgive me; I have failed to introduce my guest Junior. This is Duff Killigan, Duff this is my son Junior."

"It is a pleasure to meet you Mr Killigan." Junior responded offering his hand in greeting.

After all his father had paid for nothing but the best, and that included the best etiquette teacher around.

"Aye laddie, tis a pleasure. Call me Duff, Mr Killigan was me father." Duff replied in greeting.

Junior looked somewhat confused at the statement, but didn't comment on it.

"Now laddie, this braggart, who refused ya challenge. Who was he?" Duff prompted Junior.

"He was some new member of Team Possible, slim with unkempt blond hair. He did not have good taste in clothes either if I recall." Junior replied.

It was a fairly nondescript description given, but Duff had a hunch that it was an old foe. Playing the hunch Duff pulled a picture out of his pocket and showed it to Junior.

"This wouldn't be t braggart now would it laddie?"

Junior grew excited at seeing the picture.

"Yes that's him, that's the Team Possible person that refused my challenge

"Well now laddie isn't that interesting. What did he say when he refused ya challenge?" Duff responded showing little of the excitement that he was feeling.

"He said that I didn't have anything that he wanted, and then he just walked off." Junior replied in a pout.

"N are ya sure that he's with Team Possible now laddie?" Duff continued to query Junior.

"Yes that is what he said, he was with the team." Junior once more responded with a pout.

Senior growing more curious was wondering how Duff knew this boy.

"You have met this pilot before Duff?" Senior enquired.

"Our paths have crossed a time or two before, aye." Duff responded bringing his hand up to his chin.

"As for getting him to compete against you Junior, that is simplicity itself." Duff continued with a grin coming to his face.

"Oh how is that?" Junior asked dubiously.

"Well now laddie, it's simple. We don't challenge him we challenge the team. The boy is so used to working alone that he often forgets what it means to be part of a team."

"Ahh, I see." Senior responded in understanding.

"We find out what the team needs, and challenge them. Then he has no choice but to battle. But what does Team Possible need?" Senior continued.

"Aye Senior, challenge the team and he 'as no choice but to comply with t team. As for what Team Possible needs, I recall hearing that they were in debt to a large degree."

Senior smiled, "In debt you say; well now I believe I can take care of that. But how do we guarantee victory over him?"

The smile on Duff's face grew even bigger.

"I've a few ideas on that Senior; I only ask that I be in on t kill."

ZNCP

Mrs D P was just moving back towards the living area of the Hover Cargo when the jeep that the team used to go into Hammer Bay pulled up into a side bay off the maintenance bay.

Kim jumped out of the jeep and stormed off towards the living area. Mrs Dr P caught a glimpse of an angry expression on her daughters face. Felix was next out of the jeep, quickly transferring to his wheelchair. He took off towards the front of the Hover Cargo, the look on his face just as angry as Kim's.

Ron was the next out after turning off the engine; he slumped out of the driver's seat and headed off after Felix. He looked; well the only word Mrs Dr P could think of was hen-pecked. Monique was the last out of the jeep, she looked frustrated.

As Monique was gathering up the shopping bags Mrs Dr P approached her.

"Well Monique, do I want to know what happened this time?" Mrs Dr P asked.

Monique jumped, dropping the shopping back into the rear of the jeep. She put her hand over her chest breathing hard.

"_Don't_ do that Mrs Possible, jeez you almost scared me to death."

"Sorry Monique, I didn't realize you were so distracted. So what happened?" Mrs Dr P replied.

"Kim's just being Kim."

Mrs Dr P just raised her eyebrow waiting for Monique to continue.

Monique gathered the shopping as she gathered her thoughts.

"Well it turns out that Ron and Felix ran into Junior in town, well one thing led to another and Junior ended up challenging Ron to a battle." Monique explained to Mrs Dr P.

"Well ok, I don't see where the problem is in that." Mrs Dr P replied.

"It turns out that Ron basically told Junior to jump off a cliff, as he wouldn't fight him. Kim was upset at that, thinking that the battle would help the team even more. She basically told Ron he wasn't a good team member, as he was only thinking about himself." Monique finished with a frustrated sigh.

"Not that Ron _could_ have accepted the challenge anyway, as Junior is a class B pilot. Ron's class A and the teams class C. So what was Ron supposed to do?" Monique continued in a rush, clearly frustrated with the whole situation.

Mrs Dr P sighed, "Monique why don't you go check on the boys, while I have a few words to Kim."

"Sure Mrs Possible, I think Ron needs to be assured that he did nothing wrong anyway." Monique replied with a distracted look on her face, before she grabbed the last of the shopping and headed towards the front of the Hover Cargo.

Mrs Dr P watched her go, before shaking her head and heading off towards where she saw Kim head to.

'_Kim better be careful, or she will lose Ron again. Permanently.'_

The thought quickly crossed her mind, as she remembered the look on Monique's face. Heading up the stairs, Mrs Dr P paused next to Kim's door knocking briefly and calling out to Kim. When she got no answer, she opened the door to have a quick look inside. Seeing that Kim wasn't inside, and not hearing the shower going Mrs Dr P headed up to the rec room.

Going into the rec room Mrs Dr P heard banging coming from the kitchen, quickly going inside the kitchen she found Kim going through the cupboards looking for something. Mrs Dr P could guess all too easily what Kim was looking for.

"The twins finished it off this morning with Wade." Mrs Dr P told Kim before she could ask.

"_What_, noooo. I need it." Kim wailed.

"What you need Kim, is to apologise to Ron." Mrs Dr P said in a sharp tone.

Kim looked at her mother; she hardly ever used that tone on Kim. Kim knew she was in trouble when she heard it.

"But mom you don't know what he did?"

"He refused a battle that he couldn't have fought, even if he had accepted the challenge." Mrs Dr P replied in the same sharp tone to Kim.

Mrs Dr P then sighed, before continuing.

"Look Kim, what's really bothering you. Surely you're not still upset that Ron was taken into the Backdraft _against_ his will?"

"Don't even start with that, I'm beyond upset that the Backdraft stole my friend from me. How could they do that to him?"

Judging from her tone, Mrs Dr P could tell that Kim was angry over the whole thing. Although who, she was angry with was another story.

"So are you upset at Ron over it or the Backdraft?" She asked.

"The Backdraft of course. How could you ever think otherwise?" Kim asked, clearly shocked that the question had even been asked.

"Well the way you keep jumping on Ron over any little thing, would bound to give someone the impression that you blamed him for something."

"I don't blame Ron for anything; it's just that…this whole sitch is frustrating." Kim lifted her hand up and ran it through her hair, as she tried to calm herself.

"I know we're a good team, better than what we're showing. But we're just not cutting it… well we weren't cutting it. Then Ron shows up and things just seem to click for him, and us. We win what should have been one of the hardest battles we've ever faced really easily. He gets along with everybody really well. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he's getting along with everybody; he deserves it more than anybody. With Ron on the team everything suddenly seems possible again. It's like something that was missing has been returned." Kim tried to explain.

"But…" Mrs Dr P encouraged her daughter.

Kim shrugged, "But nothing, his arrival suddenly seems to have opened endless options for advancement that we can't take advantage of. I know that even if Ron had accepted Junior's challenge, we wouldn't have been able to fight him. It's just so frustrating. All these opportunities and we can't take advantage of them."

"I know its frustrating Kimmie, but you can't take it out on Ron. He's not going to take it as well as Felix or Monique will. It will drive him away, and we've only just found him again Kim. I don't want to lose him again."

"How so mom?"

"Kim, Ron's spent years living by himself. He's had no parental support at all, just abuse. The only way he's been able to deal with it has been to withdraw into himself, and run. You keep getting angry at him and he will do the same here, he will leave. But this time he won't be back Kim. If he leaves Kim it _will_ destroy this team, Felix will go with him. And while Monique may not, she won't stay with the team."

Kim didn't say anything; she just sat and thought about what her mother had told her. Just as she was about to answer the comm. Unit on the wall started to beep, Mrs Dr P leaned over and activated the unit.

"Hello" Mrs Dr P answered.

"Hola Mrs Dr P, is Kim there?" Ron's voice answered from the comm. Unit.

"Yes she is Ron; do you want to speak to her?"

"Nah, that's ok. There's just some stuff happening here in the briefing room that needs her attention."

"Ok Ron I'll send her right over."

Mrs Dr P switched the comm. unit off before turning to Km.

"Well here's you opportunity to apologise to Ron, Kim."

"I will mom, don't worry. I don't want to lose him again either. I just don't know how to approach him, how to talk to him now."

"Kim nothings changed, he's still the boy you meet three days ago. You were getting along fine with him then, just do the same now." Mrs Dr P advised her daughter.

"I'll try mom."

"For the team Kim?"

"No, for Ron." Kim replied with a smile.

Mrs Dr P just smiled as Kim walked out the kitchen, making her way towards the briefing room.

'_Well that's one problem down, hopefully. Now we just need to do something about her addition to Ron's Seven Layers of Heaven.'_

ZNCP

As Kim was heading towards the briefing room, her mother's words kept going through her mind. That she could lose Ron again, but this time would be permanently. That scared her as nothing else did, even though she had just met him again after so many years she felt comfortable with him. Like she could lower her guard and be who she really was in front of him, without having to be anything else. She hadn't felt like that for a long time, or with anyone else for that matter.

She just didn't know how to approach him about it, or talk to him. It wasn't as if anything had changed in the last two days since finding out about the Backdraft. And yet everything had changed. The friend that she had been looking for as long as she could remember was suddenly here in front of her. And yet she couldn't say the right thing to him.

This afternoon when Ron had told her about meeting Junior, she had felt bitterly disappointed about not being able to fight. It was another loss, even if a shot hadn't been fired. She had been out of line blowing up at Ron for it; she knew it as soon as she had done it. The look on his face as she chewed him out, she might as well have kicked him in the nuts.

If Ron did leave now, it would be her fault this time no one else's. That she resolved she would not let happen, she would apologise to Ron and sort this out. While they would never be able to get back their childhood friendship, she swore to herself that they would build a new friendship. Yet even as she vowed that she couldn't help but feel nervous as she approached the briefing room door. What if he had already decided to leave, would the rest of the team blame her? Could she get him to stay?

Stopping at the door she pushed her fears aside and opened the door. Marching in confidently, the first thing she saw was Señor Senior, Senior's image on the screen. Looking around the room she caught Monique's eye.

"What's going on?" Kim quickly mouthed to Monique.

At the same time Senior saw Kim come into the room.

"Ah, Miss Possible, how good of you to join us. And now that you are here, I can issue my challenge." Senior addressed Kim.

Kim turned towards the screen, "Challenge?"

Kim vaulted over the rail in front of her, landing neatly next to Ron as Senior replied.

"Yes my dear, I wish to challenge Team Possible to a duel tomorrow at noon. Against my son's team"

Kim quickly looked at Ron before she answered, "That's great Senior, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to decline."

If Kim had been looking at Monique or Felix, she would have seen a look of surprise appear on their faces. As it was she only saw the surprising smile on Ron's face grow bigger.

Senior was also surprised by Kim's answer. "Decline? Why my dear would you decline my challenge?"

Kim turned towards the screen, "I can't accept the challenge due to the fact that Junior's in class B, while we're a class C team." Kim replied to Senior's query.

Ron started to chuckle at Kim's response, and was about to ask Ron what was so funny when Ron started talking before she could open her mouth to frame the question.

"Hey Wade, why don't you let Kim here know the latest news." Ron addressed the unseen genius.

The screen suddenly split in two showing Wade's image next to Senior's. Wade had a big grin on his face.

"Well while you were out shopping I got a communiqué from the Battle Commission. With your victory over the D Hall'ers the team has been promoted to class B." Wade happily announced to Kim.

Kim was shocked by the news, she couldn't believe it. Two days ago the team had been at the bottom of class C. Now they were class B, this had to be a joke.

"How did we get promoted? Why?" Kim asked Wade.

"Well as the team defeated a class A team, it gave us the skill ranking needed to move up a grade. Also as the D Hall'ers lost to a class C team, they lost a lot of ranking and have been demoted to class B." Wade explained to a still stunned Kim.

Kim started to smile as she processed the information. "Well that's spankin."

"Yes it is as you put it, spankin. Now there is no class discrepancies and you can battle my son." Senior told Kim with a smile on his face."

"I'm afraid the answer is still no, Ron stated that he didn't want to battle Junior, so I'm respecting his wish's and must still say no." Kim told Senior.

Monique leaned over to Felix and whispered in his ear. "Wow, I wonder what Mrs P said to Kim to get her to change her tune so much."

"I don't know, but I hope she continues to lay off Ron." Felix replied.

"Well Miss Possible, I'm a little disappointed at your answer but I was prepared for such an eventuality. It seems though that Team Possible has raked up considerable debts to a lot of businesses in Middleton. I have approached those businesses and acquired those debts from them. Team Possible now owes me a considerable amount of money. If you do not battle my son tomorrow at noon, then your payment of that debt is due five minutes past twelve." Senior calmly informed Kim.

Kim looked at Ron, who gave her a barely perceptible nod. Before she turned back to Senior.

"What do we get if we do battle Junior?" Kim enquired.

"If you win, then all debts will be written off. If Junior wins then as per the agreement he made with Mr Unstoppable, he will receive what they agreed upon."

"And the debt?"

"We will come up with a suitable repayment plan, for the debt."

"Sounds fair, you're on. Where and what rules." Kim eagerly returned.

"The battle mode will be 0973, and will be a three on three battle. I will have the co-ordinates sent to you directly. Until tomorrow then, Miss Possible, Mr Unstoppable good day."

With that Señor Senior, Senior's image disappeared from the screen.

Kim took a couple of steps forward before turning to face the team.

"Well now, that went well…" Kim started.

"Um Kim…"

"Yes Ron?"

"Um, the agreement with Junior was that he wins he gets the 'Fox'." Ron told Kim hesitantly.

"The Shadow Fox? Well that's generous of you to place it up as collateral for the team." Kim replied to Ron before she started to continue with the brief.

"Um Kim…"

"_Yes _Ron."

"It wasn't for the Shadow Fox. It was for Junior's 'Blue' Fox."

Kim just looked at Ron for several seconds before dropping her head and bringing her hand up to her face, groaning at what she had just agreed to.

"I can't believe Junior's still hasn't gotten over that. I thought Eric had chased him off." Kim groaned.

Ron chuckled, "Chased him off, Eric? He probably encouraged him."

Kim quickly looked up at Ron, who suddenly held his breath thinking he had said something wrong. After a couple of seconds Kim chuckled as well.

"Knowing Eric, he probably did. Well while we're all here we might as well brief on the battle tomorrow. So we don't have to expend too much effort getting people up for the briefing tomorrow morning."

Kim gave Ron a friendly glare with the last comment, before continuing.

"Wade do you have the coordinates yet?" Kim enquired of the genius.

"Yes I do, they're for an old abandoned city commonly used for this battle mode. About 2000 km away, at top speed we should reach the destination quite comfortably." Wade replied.

"Ok Wade, prepare the Hover Cargo to get underway."

Wade quickly glanced at Ron, who gave him the thumbs up. Then his image disappeared from the screen.

Kim looking at the group, thought for a few seconds before she continued speaking.

"Here's what I think we should do, as it's a three on three we'll go in a knife formation. One out front, two back on the flanks. We'll keep it simple."

Kim then turned to Ron, "You have anything to add to that Ron?"

Monique turned to look at Felix, who mealy raised an eyebrow at the unspoken question. This was turning out to be a far different briefing than yesterday.

Ron not noticing the silent exchange to his left answered Kim. "Me out front in Rufus as bait to draw them out, while Monique and Felix flank them, sounds solid to me. Who we going against?"

"Juniors offsiders consist of Hank Perkins in a Heldigunner and Adrena Lynn in a Rev Rapter. It's unknown what Junior will pilot for the battle. It'll be Monique and me on your flanks." Kim replied

"With those zoid's we'll want to get in close and personal. You'll be in the Liger?"

"Agreed, the quicker we get close the better. No I'll be in the Saix."

"Whoa, your going to take the Saix into a 0973 battle?" Ron exclaimed at Kim's admission.

"Yes, why? What's the problem with me taking the Saix in?"

"No offense Kim but the Saix, isn't designed for tight cornering like the Liger is. You'll lose too much advantage in there, being unable to use the Saix's speed."

"Relax Ron; I know what I'm doing. The Saix will be fine in there, with Monique providing heavy support in the Dibison and Rufus in the Panzer armor. We'll have superior firepower, we'll control the firefight."

"Sorry Kim, but I'm not taking Rufus in with the Panzer armor on. It'll restrict Rufus to much; his speed will be cut and his agility gone. Plus he isn't able to go bi-pedal with the other armors on."

"The alternate armors lock out his ability to go bi-pedal, that's good to know. So you'll go in the Jager or Schneider armors instead?"

"Nah, I'll just use the Prime armor."

"Are you sure Ron? The Prime armor doesn't give you much firepower; the Schneider would be perfect for close quarters against the Rapter and Heldigunner. It also gives Rufus a speed boost as well, from what I remember of the specs. This would allow you to close much faster with them." Kim queried back at Ron.

Ron just shrugged, "If I need it I can always change later, but the Prime armour gives me accesses to all of Rufus's abilities. In this type of battle that will be more helpful than anything that the other armors would give."

Kim didn't look convinced with Ron's argument, still if it kept the peace she would let it lie for the moment. As Ron said he could always change the armor later, also she could work on him to change his mind about using the alternate armor's up till the battle.

"Fine for now Ron, we'll talk about it more later. Now as for the battle, this is how I see us proceeding. Once Ron draws the other team out, Monique you'll take out the Heldigunner while I'll take out the Rapter. That will leave Junior to you Ron; anyone who finish's their battle first will back up whoever needs it. Question's, comments." Kim turned to the floor.

Ron hesitated a second before he responded to Kim, "I'd still like the Liger on the field, instead of the Saix. The Saix just wasn't designed with this type of combat in mind."

Kim looked at Ron for a second trying to determine how receptive he was to having her on the field of battle.

"Ron I _will_ be in this battle."

"I'm not saying that you shouldn't be Kim, I just think that it would _benefit_ the _team_ more if the Liger was on for this battle instead of the Saix." Ron replied earnestly.

"Tell you what Ron, I'll think about changing zoid's for the battle if you think about changing armors for the battle."

Kim then looked around at Felix and Monique before continuing.

"Well if there's nothing more, I'm going to go see if the tweebs left any cake."

With that Kim turned and left the briefing room. Ron sat on the couch and watched her go before sighing.

"You ok Hon?" Monique enquired.

"Huh, um yeah sure, I'm fine Monique. I just don't like this upcoming battle." Ron replied absently

Felix knew Ron very well; if he was concerned with an upcoming battle something was wrong.

"Kim's using the Saix bother you that much Ron?" Felix asked, hoping to draw more of an answer out of Ron on what was bothering him.

"I'm not happy about that much Felix, but like Kim say's it's her choice. No I don't like how that old guy knew how to get Kim to agree like that. It just felt wrong."

"I donno, it seemed like a straight forward challenge to me." Monique chipped in.

Ron looked at Monique for a second before he responded. "Well it doesn't hurt to be cautious."

With that Ron then addressed the room. "Wade buddy keep an eye out for Junior's team, just in case there's something not quite kosher going on."

With that Ron stood up and followed after Kim.

Monique looked at Felix, "Well that was different."

Felix just shrugged, "Kim was politer, yes. But she still wasn't listening to what Ron had to say. I agree that the Saix is out of it's element with this type of battle."

"Then why didn't you say anything when you had the chance?" Monique stated with some exasperation colouring her voice.

"I wanted to see if Kim was paying any attention to what Ron had to say. Speaking of attention, when will I be able to pay _attention_ to you in that bikini?" Felix asked eagerly.

Sighing Monique rolled her eyes, "When we get back to the base, that way we can avoid the twins and Wade seeing…_or recording_ anything that they shouldn't."

With that Monique picked up the shopping and headed out of the briefing room.

ZNCP

The Hover Cargo was stopped in front of an enormous gate; it was one of four entrances to the ancient city that the battle was to be held in. The huge stone walls towered over the Hover Cargo, with the buildings inside towering over the walls.

The city had been here for as long as anyone could remember, empty, silent. A ghost city long abandoned, by whoever had lived here. It made the perfect site for 'blind' battles, towering buildings that could not be seen over. Streets wide enough to drive a Hover Cargo down, without it hitting the walls on either side. But with enough twists, turns and dead ends that it was impossible to get any type of serious speed up without jeopardising yourself and your zoid.

It was to this battle city that Team Possible had come to fight Team Pizzazz. Inside the Hover Cargo a team-member of the aforementioned team was contemplating the mysteries of battle.

"Team Pizzazz? You've got to be kidding me Felix, they're called Team Pizzazz. Why would anybody in their right mind call a team 'Pizzazz'?"

O.K. maybe nothing that deep.

"The Blitz Team, the Lighting Team, Team Mad Dog, hell even the Bebe's I get... kind of. But Team Pizzazz, why Felix, why?" Ron begged his friend and fellow team-mate to answer.

"Apparently Ron, 'Pizzazz' is a peppy and upbeat word. One that will get you noticed. At least that's what Hank Perkins advised Señor Senior, Senior when he was brought in. At least that's what I heard" Felix replied with a chuckle.

"Oh come on Felix, Team Pizzazz. That was the best they could come up with, even the Fuzzy Panda's is a better name than that." Ron replied indignantly.

"Apparently it gets attention." Felix responded with the best innocent expression on his face that he could come up with.

"Yeah, it'll get you attention all right. Not in a good way though." Ron mumbled

Felix was about to reply when Wade's voice came in over the comm. System.

"Hey Ron you there?"

Ron and Felix were standing on the launch elevator in the launch rack. The elevator was raised up so Ron could get into Rufus for launching. Kim and Monique had just launched moments before and were currently waiting for Ron in front of the Hover Cargo. Ron walked the short distance over to the comm. System on the wall next to the launch elevator and answered.

"Yeah Wade, what's up?"

"You know how you asked me to keep an eye on Team Pizzazz?"

"Yeah, why?" Ron answered raising his eyebrow.

"Well the team just registered their zoid gear with the Judge, and it wasn't Hank and Adrena that were shown on the team. It was Duff Killigan and Frugal Lucre." Wade's voice answered from the unit. Concern, clearly being heard in Wade's voice.

"Ahhhh shit, not good. Do Kim and Monique know?" Ron quickly shot back.

Felix hearing the suddenly serous tone in Ron's voice looked over quickly.

"They've gone through the gates into the city already. As soon as they passed the gate all communication with them ceased."

"Not good, not good, so not good." Ron started to repeat to himself, running his hands through his hair.

"Ron-man, what's happening? Who are these Killigan and Lucre guys, and why are they a problem?" Felix asked hoping to stop Ron from panicking.

Ron turned to look at Felix, taking a couple of deep breaths before answering.

"Doof and Frugal are mercenaries. Doof specializes in explosives, while Frugal dabbles in communication. Last time I went against them, Doof had planted mines all over the place. Crippled half the team I was helping at the time, before the battle even started. It was also a 'blind' battle. Damn, I should have seen this coming." Ron's tone had started to drift off at the end, as he started to think about the situation they were in.

Felix was visibly concerned now, if this guy had Ron worried then he was to be taken seriously.

"So...what does this mean Ron?"

Ron sighed, "It means Felix that we just walked into a trap."

Ron turned and ran towards Rufus's cockpit, jumping in he quickly sat in his seat activating the comms.

"Wade prep the X armor for battle, and launch me."

"You sure about the X armor? Wouldn't the Schneider be more appropriate for this battle." Wade asked,

"No, not the Schneider, I'll need the X armor's sensors to pick up the mines."

"O.k. Ron, you're the boss. Wait a minute and I'll rotate Rufus round to the maintenance bay."

"Time's of the essence here Wade, I'll launch first and warn Kim and Monique. Then I'll come back and armor up. In the meantime you continue to try and get through to them."

With that the canopy to the cockpit pivoted down and locked into place, Felix lowered the launch elevator as Rufus was raised into launch position on the magnetic launch rail.

ZNCP

Monique and Kim had entered the deserted city just as the Judge started the fight; they had heard nothing since from either the Judge, or from Ron.

"You heard from Ron, Kim?" Monique contacted Kim.

"Nothing yet Mon, damn he should have been here by now. Didn't he hear the Judge start the battle?"

"I don't know about this Kim, something doesn't feel right. Have you been able to contact Wade to see what's taking Ron so long?"

"Not yet Mon, it's strange all communication seemed to stop once we got inside." Kim responded absently, more concerned about her missing team mate than the lack of communication.

"I've a bad feeling about this Kim. Ron didn't like it coming into this battle, now we seem to be cut off from everyone." Monique answered a weary note evident in her voice.

"Mon Relax, there's nothing to worry about. You're just letting the atmosphere of this place get to you." Kim replied with a chuckle.

Monique looked around, and had to agree. There was a foreboding atmosphere to the city. It was midday, and outside the city the sun glared down upon the barren landscape. Inside shadows loomed everywhere, with barely any sunlight reaching street level. The whole place had a pale washed out look to it, beaten and battered the scars of hundreds of battles evident on the buildings and on the street.

Monique was starting to think that there were zoids hiding in the shadows watching them. She was about to comment on this to Kim, when Kim's voice came in over the comms causing Monique to jump.

"Hey Mon, Change in plan. I can't wait for Ron any longer, so I'll be the bait and go ahead. You can wait here for Ron and go ahead with the plan, or wait a minute and follow giving me cover."

"Wait a minute Kim, it's only been a couple since we launched. Ron can't be too far away. Besides I think I just picked up a launch from the Hover Cargo with the Dibison's sensors."

It was too late, Monique watched as the Lighting Saix took off down the street accelerating quickly. Just as it reached the end of the street, the Saix's right front paw hooked into the street. Causing its rear quarters to swing around quickly so that it was now facing to the right, where it again quickly accelerated away in the new direction.

"Damn it Kim, if me and Felix did that you'd chew us out about it. Not to mention that two weeks ago you would never have done this. Hell last week you wouldn't have been so reckless, why the sudden change?"

Not getting any response back from Kim, Monique just sighed and started to follow after her. Accelerating to a reasonable speed, but not as fast or reckless a speed as Kim was traveling at.

If Monique had looked back to where her and Kim had taken off from as she rounded the corner, she would have seen a zoid shaped like a King cobra rise up from the shadows. The head swiveled around for a minute before it lowered itself back down and slithered back into the shadows, reaching them just in time as Rufus quickly ran down the street. Rufus paused briefly, before heading left at the T intersection at the end of the street.

ZNCP

The Bridge of the Hover Cargo was awash with activity, it had been over thirty minutes since Ron had launched. Aside from the odd explosion, nothing had been heard. Wade was busy at the computer trying to find a way around the jamming signal, while the twins had ripped apart the comm. station trying to find a way to boost the output strength. Mr. Dr P had headed out to the antenna array to see if he could do the same thing there.

Felix was monitoring the comms, trying every couple of minutes to get through to anybody on the team. This just left Mrs. Dr P with nothing to do, the signal jamming comms was also jamming the bio signs from the pilots as well. She just continued to sit at her station, trying her best not to fret at this lack of information that they were getting about the battle.

Mrs Dr P knew that risk was a part of zoid battles that was part of the competition. She trusted the team to be able to handle themselves in any battle that they took part in. But if what Ron told Felix was true, that a trap was deliberately laid with the sole intention of taking out the team. This was unacceptable, if anyone of the kids were harmed in any way she would personally see that Señor Senior, Senior would pay for it.

As these thoughts were going through her mind, Mrs. Dr P noticed the monitors in front of her suddenly came to life. She suddenly had bio-metric readings on Ron.

"Wade, Ron's readings have come on line." Mrs. Dr P quickly informed the young genius beside her.

Wade stopped what he was doing and swiveled around to view the monitors.

"Anything coming in from Kim or Monique, Mrs. Possible?" he inquired.

Mrs Dr P worked her controls for a minute, before she answered Wade.

"No just Ron and judging from these readings, he's not in battle."

In fact checking the readings, they were the same as they had been prier to launching in the battle with the D Hall'ers.

"Hmm, let me check something." Wade mumbled to himself, before he started to rapidly type away on the keyboard. After thirty seconds he stopped, pulling some data up on screen.

"Got it, we never updated Rufus's core broadcast array when we were repairing him. It still broadcasts on older freq.'s, we added a band booster so he could get the higher freq.'s used nowadays. Whoever is jamming us is only jamming the higher channels. So if we...there, that should do it."

With a flourish, Wade adjusted the Hover Cargo's broadcast frequency dropping them down into the lower spectrum.

Felix quickly keyed the comm.'s.

"You there Ron? Come in Ron, what's happening?"

"Hey Felix, glad you could join the party. I haven't been able to find the girls, but just between you and me buddy. I don't think I could find myself at the moment, this place is a maze. I haven't even been able to see any sign of the opposition either." Ron's voice calmly came in over the speakers, with just a bit of distortion colouring the transmission.

A visible sigh of relief went through everybody on the bridge, with the twins stopping what they were doing to pay attention to the exchange.

"If you hold on a second Ron, I should be able to get area location data up and running on Rufus for you." Wade quickly informed Ron.

Tapping away on his keyboard, Wade's expression quickly became concerned.

"Um, Ron where about's is Rufus standing?" Wade asked.

"In the middle of the street, Wade. Why what's going on?" Concern heard in Ron's puzzled response.

"I'm picking up some funny energy readings coming from all around you, that's why." Wade responded, alarm could clearly be heard in his voice.

"What, but I don't see anything..." Ron's voice started to trail off as he realized what Wade was picking up.

"Oh shit." Was the only comment Ron could think of for the situation he suddenly found himself in.

"Um Ron-man I suggest you get out of there. I just picked up an unusual signal." Felix rechecked his equipment as everyone suddenly heard explosions coming in over the speakers.

"Ron, _**RUN**_!" Mrs Dr P bellowed at Ron.

All that could be heard over the explosions, was Ron screaming, (a manly scream of courage).

ZNCP

Kim hit the control panel in front of her in frustration, to no avail. The Saix was in a system freeze; Kim had been coming around the corner behind her when she had been suddenly shaken from an explosion. At the speed she had been traveling at, one hit was all that was needed. The Saix had tumbled, its left front paw suddenly useless. It had careened off the wall in front and tumbled to its current resting position in the middle of the street facing in the direction she had originally been traveling in.

That had been about ten minutes ago, since then she had just been stuck there. Waiting for the end result of the battle, to see who won. Getting more tweaked by the moment at the helplessness she felt, and the frustration of not even seeing who had taken her out. To make matters worse, she couldn't even contact her team mates or the Hover Cargo to see what was happening.

Kim was just about to hit the panel in front of her again, when she heard explosions off in the distance. This was the first sign of life she had heard since she had been taken out; Kim took it as a good sign. As it meant that the team was still in the battle. As Kim continued to sit there, she noticed that the explosions were getting closer. In fact she could feel the Saix start shaking from the shockwaves, dust and rubble was coming loose from the buildings around her.

Then Kim saw the cause of the explosions, as Rufus came hurtling around the corner at the end of the street. Ron wasn't using the tactic that Kim had employed to quickly navigate corners, that of using one of the front paws as an anchor and drifting round. Instead he had Rufus's thrusters turned, so the thrust would swing his rear quarters around the corner. In this way he wouldn't loose any speed in the cornering.

'_It's an unusual place to put the thrusters, over the hind quarters but hey if it works. Hmm, Ron doesn't seem to be slowing down. In fact he looks like he's coming right for me.' _

Kim barely had time to note the explosions following Rufus, as she saw the thrusters being cut at just over 200 meters out. Then when Rufus was at just over a hundred meters out Kim saw Rufus suddenly gain height as he transformed into his bi-pedal mode. Kim noted that he would be about as tall as an Iron Kong, just as Rufus jumped to avoid tripping over the Saix. As Rufus cleared the Saix, his thrusters activated giving the jump a lot more height. Kim heard a clang come from somewhere behind and above her. Straining her neck to look behind the Saix, she saw Rufus digging his claws into the wall behind as he quickly ascended the building.

"Well, I gotta admit that's fairly impressive."

Kim had no sooner gotten the words out of her mouth, when she was suddenly shaken as the Saix was rocked from the explosions of the mines going off. As the explosions died down, Kim quickly realized what had taken her out.

Twenty minutes later Kim was still fuming at the realization that the Saix had stood on a mine. She was also getting tired of waiting; it had almost been an hour since the battle had begun. There was still no word from anybody on what was happening, or who was winning. Tired of waiting around, Kim unhooked her safety harness and opened her cockpit. No sooner was the cockpit opened then Kim heard the Judge's voice come in over the Saix's comms.

"There is still a battle going on, it is unsafe to disembark from your zoid at this time. You will refrain from doing so." the Judge's metallic voice was heard coming from the speakers.

Kim was delighted, not about the fact that she couldn't move yet, but here was a chance to find out what was happening. Activating the comms, she quickly contacted the Judge.

"Who's still fighting, and where are they?"

Kim tried to form as neutral a question as possible in the hopes that the Judge would answer.

"Team Pizzazz is still fighting with all team members; Team Possible is fighting with Unstoppable as the last remaining active member." Came the reply from the Judge.

Kim was speechless, not only was her team almost wiped out, but they hadn't even touched Junior's team by all appearances.

"What happened, and where is Ron?" she demanded from the Judge.

Kim was surprised that the Judge deemed fit to answer her question.

"Team member Monique was taken out under similar unknown circumstances to yourself 17.35 minutes into the match. Team member Unstoppable has been active throughout. He has returned to the team's mobile base of operations and re-armored. He has since re-launched and is now active somewhere in the city, his precise location is unknown at this stage." With that the Judge signed off.

It was more than Kim had expected from the Judge, but instead of calming her down the information just made her more edgy. She needed to find out what was going on, and how had Ron evaded the Judges notice, it was rumored that even a Helcat in stealth mode could be picked up by the Judge.

Just as Kim was pondering these developments she noticed a distortion effect coming from the street in front or her. Next thing she knew, a Helcat and Stealth Viper appeared in front of her. Well that explained a lot about how her team had been so completely owned, as none of the zoids they had outside of the Shadow Fox had the necessary sensory equipment needed to pick up the stealth zoids.

Kim didn't like the way both zoids were looking at her, so she attempted to contact them.

"What are you two up to?" she put forth to the zoids, wondering if she would even get an answer.

A weak sounding voice came back to her, "Why Miss Possible, we need to draw your team mate out. You have been chosen as bait, we shake you up a bit and Unstoppable will come running to save you. Then when he comes to your rescue we will jump him, he'll never know what hit him."

Kim shuddered at the mad laughter that followed this little rant. Then she heard Junior's voice through the comms answering his unknown companion.

"I don't know about this, I don't want to hurt my Blue Fox."

The Helcat half turned away from Kim, as if it was going to take off back down the street.

'_Well at least I know what zoid Junior's in, now how do I get out of this one_"

Just as Kim was contemplating what to do, the unknown voice came over the comms again.

"We're not going to hurt her Junior, just shake her up. When she screams, we go to stealth mode and wait. Simple, easy, Unstoppable won't know what hit him."

Kim disliked the voice even more, with the smarmy tone it had adopted.

"I see only one problem with that plan Frugal, what happens if I know about it."

Kim didn't believe it; Ron was close wherever he was. And he knew what was going on from the sounds of it.

"_Will Ron be able to reach me in time though?"_

Kim thought worriedly to herself, just as Frugal started talking again.

"Junior, go to stealth mode now."

Just as Junior's Helcat started to disappear again, two huge wounds suddenly appeared in the back of his Helcat lifting it up. Sparks appeared around the holes, as the Helcat became visible and started to shudder and shake as it went in to a catastrophic system freeze. Kim couldn't see what had caused such massive damage to the zoid, judging from the Stealth Vipers reaction of looking around, it couldn't see anything as well.

Frugal's voice came through the comms again, this time sounding very worried.

"Hey Unstoppable, um, how's it going. You know we were only kidding right, _right?"_

Then Kim saw a distortion effect coming from the other side of Junior's Helcat, and Rufus appeared in the strangest armor that Kim had ever seen. His armor was pitch black with midnight blue shoulder panels and ventilation ports on either side of his neck. He had gold highlights on the cockpit's head and the tip of his tail. Kim could suddenly see where the wounds had come from on Juniors Helcat, as two massive blades were through the holes in the back of the Helcat.

Then the blades suddenly flipped up, ripping through the armored back of the Helcat dropping it instantly to the ground. The blades adopted a position on Rufus's back, on the flanks with the blades facing down his body. Now they looked like nothing more than a double barreled assault canon.

"You _know _that I always liked you, don't you Unstoppable?" Frugal's voice came nervously from the comms.

Ron just snorted, "You always were a snake in the grass Frugal."

With that a huge discharge of electricity came from the reversed blades, striking the Stealth Viper dead centre sending it into a system freeze.

Ron's voice then cheerfully came over the comms, "Hiya Kim, how's it going. Wait right here, there's just one more thing to take care of."

Before Kim could say anything, Rufus was off down the street. A distortion effect appearing around Rufus as he barreled down the street and around the corner. As he disappeared from view Kim suddenly had full communication back with the rest of her team.

ZNCP

To say Duff was not a happy chappy would have been an understatement, less than five minutes ago everything had been going according to plan. With the exception of Unstoppable rolling over and playing dead, the plan had been perfectly executed. First with communication between the team and their mobile base being blocked, then between the team members. Then the Dibison and Lighting Saix had been incapacitated walking on mines, the Lighting Saix spectacularly so. But then the plan had come undone, Unstoppable had been able to somehow evaded all the mines that had been laid out, even after he had remotely detonated them.

Now he had lost contact with Frugal and Junior, just after Frugal had reported that they were about to shake up the Saix a bit to draw him out. Duff was getting a bad feeling about this; he had the feeling that it was time to get out of here.

Duff started up his Missile Tortoise and started forward, unfortunately it wasn't the fastest of zoids to begin with. With the extra Wild Weasel units that he had put on for this battle, it was slower still barely having a top speed of 110 kph.

Duff was just getting towards the middle of the street when a black and blue zoid appeared in front of him.

"Hey Doof, ya going somewhere? I thought you wanted to play?"

Duff had to wince at the cheery voice of Ron came over his comms.

"That's Duff ya buffoon, an sure I'll play. How about ya play, with me missiles."

With that Duff activated all his weapons systems, locking onto the zoid in front of him and fired. Twelve missile's from the Wild Weasel units all fired from there racks. But instead of going towards the zoid standing calmly in front of him, they instead hit the ground, and walls all around him. Some even flying off into the sky.

"What, but how. That's nae possible." Duff exclaimed in total surprise.

Ron's voice calmly came back over his comms, "Sure it is, if you are able to jamm the missile lock. Now you said something about wanting to play?"

With that Duff saw two massive blades flip down from the back of the zoid, and lock in front of the shoulders. Then the black zoid charged towards him, Duff tried to swerve to the left to avoid the charge. The Missile Tortoise was just to slow, with the blades impacting into the side of the Tortoise. Duff had moved just enough that the hit wasn't a fatal one. Just as he thought that he would be able to use this to his advantage he was hit with a massive electrical charge, which sent his zoid into a system freeze and knocked him out.

"The fight is over, the fight is over. The winner is Team Possible." Came the Judge's voice over the comms.

Ron just flicked the blades back up into there resting position and sighed, before turning Rufus around and started to head back towards his team mates.

ZNCP

Kim made her way down into the maintenance bay to where Ron, Wade and her father were looking over the battle damaged zoids.

As she entered the Bay she moved around to the left side, avoiding the Lightning Saix. Coming up beside Ron she stopped and watched for awhile before she started talking.

"How is she?"

Ron turned to kim with a smile on his face, "She's not to bad, needs the front left leg replaced, but she doesn't have any structural damage. It's mostly just surface damage to the armor, that'll be easily knocked out. Heh you even managed to avoid damaging the boosters and weapon systems. Still it's going to take over a week to fix, and we can't make the repairs here."

Kim just nodded at the assessment, thinking how lucky she had gotten with the damage. All things considered it could have been a lot worse, especially if Ron hadn't turned up when he did to defeat Junior and Frugal.

"What about the Dibison Ron, how's that?" Kim inquired.

Ron just shrugged, "About the same, just needs both right legs replaced. Again nothing we can do here, plus it'll take about two to three weeks to do."

Mr Dr P entered the conversation at that stage. "That's ok Ron; we'll head back to the base and conduct repairs there. It shouldn't be to hard now to get the parts needed, in fact I think I'll call ahead and order them now. I pretty much know what we need."

With that Mr Dr P headed off towards the bridge to order the parts. Ron just turned to head towards the living quarters, when Kim placed her hand on his arm stopping him.

"Ron, I just want to say thanks. For everything. We wouldn't be where we are now if you hadn't helped us."

Ron just smiled, "That's ok Kim, it's what I do. It was no big deal."

Kim shook her head, "No Ron it was big, very big."

Ron didn't have a reply for Kim, so Kim grabbed his arm and started to head towards the living quarters.

ZNCP

* * *

Next: The End of the Beginning

Here's a little fun for my readers if they want. If you want to put a team together made of secondary characters, the one I like I'll use.

Characters can't use, as I have plans for them.

Team GO obvious reasons.

Bonnie, Tara, Hope, Liz – BeBes

Barkin, Josh, Reiger, Brick, Ned Mad Dogs.

Sinker – Stingray type zoid. Usually used for racing

Stealth Viper, originally known as Snakes, is a Snake-type Zoid

Missile Tortoise is a Tortoise type Zoid

Rev Rapter is a Velociraptor-type

Heldigunner is an Iguana-type Zoid

**Schneider** (Cutter or Slicer in German)

The second CAS Unit, the CP-17 Schneider Unit is designed for close combat. The unit features seven energy blades mounted on the head and sides (five around the head, one on each flank), which can be used to cut through enemy Zoid armor and energy shields. Additionally, the Schneider features improved speed and acceleration through the use of a series of powerful boosters, and possesses an energy shield.

**X**** armor**

The first and only CAS Unit developed by the Guylos Empire, the 'X Unit' is a specialised electronic warfare and assault unit. The X Unit features powerful jamming systems, as well as sophisticated stealth features that make the Zoid very hard to detect. Additionally, the X Unit is equipped with a pair of powerful blades that allow it to discharge electricity as a weapon.


	6. The End of the Beginning

**Kim Possible: Zoids - New Century.**

_Disclaimer: Disney owns Kim Possible, Tomy owns Zoids, Kim Possible: Zoids – New Century plot line owned by 'Blue Kiwi'._

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

Sir Winston Churchill, _Speech in November 1942_  
_British politician (1874 - 1965)_

**Chapter 6: The End of the Beginning.**

* * *

Kim was breathing hard as she entered the Hover Cargo; she had just finished a long run to wake herself up. Being back at the home base had given Kim a chance to get back into some normal routines. Getting back into her exercise routines was her first priority, especially after losing that race to Ron. Although to give Ron his due, he was in great shape for someone who came across as lazy. Every night that they had been out, that they weren't travelling around, he had gone for a run and done exercises after.

When Kim had questioned him about this, Ron had just shrugged and said it was the routine that he had gotten into from his arena days. Wake up at six to do ablutions and get ready for the day, followed with breakfast. Schooling in the morning till midday, lunch followed by zoid training in the afternoon with PT to complete the day.

For Ron to stay with that routine all this time showed how much it had been ingrained into him. Kim was trying at the moment to get Ron to change to a morning exercise programme, so he could exercise with her. So far no joy, as he was happily enjoying sleeping in. Six o'clock wake ups was one habit he had enjoyed breaking.

Kim moved back into the maintenance bay where the Shadow Fox was currently situated. With the teams other zoids being repaired in the bases hanger, Wade had moved the Fox into the maintenance bay for general servicing.

Walking up to the zoid, Kim ran a hand along its leg as she walked past slowly moving towards the back of the zoid. Kim paused halfway down the body of the zoid, and looked up at it admiringly. She had felt an attachment to the zoid the first time she had laid eyes on it, now Kim used any reason she could to come and look at the Shadow Fox. Kim was tempted to jump in the cockpit and go for a run in it, every time she went past.

"The Fox is a good looking zoid, too bad it can't be piloted."

Kim jumped as Ron's voice cheerfully came from behind her. She turned to look over her shoulder, noticing that Ron was fully dressed holding a camera.

Ron continued to talk, "Although I'm not sure that I'd want to pilot him, especially after piloting Rufus."

Kim frowned, "If you _don't_ want to pilot the Fox, why do you keep it?"

Ron just shrugged as he turned his attention from the Shadow Fox to Kim, who became very self, aware. Kim was currently dressed in short tight white shorts, with a matching white t-shirt with a pink heart on it, socks and sneakers. Sweat stained her top; she had been for a long run. Not as far as when she had chased Ron, but just as fast.

Ron didn't seem to notice Kim's reaction to him looking at her.

"I want to meet the Zi fighter, which can pilot the Fox." Ron replied in answer to Kim's question.

Kim raised her eyebrow at that and was about to ask more when Ron changed the subject.

"I thought you had moved back into the base when we got back."

Kim grimaced, "I didn't want to wake anyone when I got back from my date last night. Plus all my gear is still in the Cargo anyway, so I just crashed here last night."

Kim hadn't gotten in that late from her date, around 10pm, but she just couldn't face Monique and all the questions she would have asked. It wasn't as if it was a bad date, Kim just didn't think it was a good date with Josh. She felt like she was sixteen again, trying to hard to impress Josh. She should be beyond that. So she had just crashed in the Cargo when she got back, she knew Ron wouldn't mind, and she felt secure here.

Looking to change the subject, before Ron asked about the date, she thought she'd find out about the camera.

"So why are you up so _early_, and _why_ the camera Ron?"

Ron just chuckled as he looked at the camera, "Monique wanted me to take some photos today, and wanted me to be there early enough to catch Felix's reaction. I didn't get the straight of it for why he would have a reaction to Monique today that would be different to any other day."

Kim looked suddenly very excited, "She's doing that today, tell her to wait up. I want to see the look on Felix's face as well."

Kim started to dash off towards the living quarters of the Cargo when she suddenly stopped and turned back to Ron. Ron had just started to turn to move towards the personal exit at the front of the Cargo.

"Hey Ron, have you ever tried to pilot the Fox?"

Ron looked at Kim with a goofy smile on his face, "Yeah I _tried _to pilot him a couple of times. Both times he bucked around, _then_ ejected me from the cockpit. For some reason I think he's mad at me."

With that Ron turned and headed out the front of the maintenance bay towards the exit. Kim watched him go, with a smile on her face. She had enjoyed talking with Ron, and how he had checked her out during the conversation. He had looked at her, (what sane man wouldn't, she was a good looking women wearing tight fitting running clothes) without ogling her and making her feel uncomfortable. He had kept eye contact the entire time they had talked. Yes Kim was starting to feel very comfortable around Ron, not quite at ease as she remembered she was when they were children, but comfortable.

Turning away Kim started to head towards the living quarters again, pausing to chuckle, "I'd be mad at Ron to, if he kept referring to me as a guy. Isn't that right...girl."

With that Kim continued out of the maintenance bay, she stopped when she heard the Shadow Fox laugh in its high pitched squeal. Kim turned and looked at the Shadow Fox, only to see that it was looking at her over its shoulder.

ZNCP

Felix was excited; the team had been back at the base for a week now. During the week, everyone had been concentrating on repairing the Saix and Dibison. With so many working on repairing the zoids, the work had gone quicker than expected and both zoids were now fully operational.

With the zoids repaired and no battles due, the Drs Possible were taking the opportunity to visit friends in Middleton. They had taken the twins with them, and weren't due back to late tonight. With this absence of the Drs P and the twins, Monique was going to 'pay up' on the bet.

So Felix was waiting in the kitchen area for Monique to come and serve him in Tara's bikini. To make it even sweeter, while Monique had banned him from taking photos she was encouraging Ron to. Getting copies after would be no problem; he already had several of the guys waiting to get their hands on said copies. This was going to be _sweet._

Felix looked over at Ron, who was leaning against the kitchen bench playing with the camera.

"You're sure you know how to work the camera Ron?"

Ron looked up from the camera, "Huh, oh yeah sure, it's pretty straight forward Felix. I've got this not a problem."

Not an answer that filled Felix with confidence.

"How about _batteries_? Do you have fresh batteries in the camera?"

Ron sighed; Felix had been asking the same questions for the last ten minutes. Personally he didn't see what the big fuss was about; he was just taking a couple of pictures of Felix's reaction to Monique. Really what was the big deal?

"Yes Felix, new batteries. The camera's going fine, and I know how it works. Now stop being nervous, what's the big deal anyway?"

Felix turned to look at the kitchen door that led to the living room, where Monique was going to come from.

"Sorry just nervous, I don't know what's taking Monique so long. As for why it's such a big deal, well I won't spoil the surprise for you. Let's just say you're in for a _treat_."

Ron just shrugged, whatever was going on he'd find out about it soon enough. He had other things on his mind, mainly what he had seen in the Hover Cargo's maintenance bay.

"Monique is probably waiting for Kim; I came across her in the maintenance bay and she wanted to be here for whatever's going on. Kim that is, not Monique, although Monique will be here. As she's the one doing it, whatever it is. Not that she'll be doing 'it', just whatever it is that she's going to do. And why don't I just shut up now."

Felix was just about to comment on Ron's ramble when Monique's voice coming from the doorway drew his attention back towards the door.

"Oh I'm going to do something all right baby boys, you can believe that. Just make sure you've got that camera going and capture every second of _it_."

Without his eyes leaving the doorway and the long well toned leg that was seen just sticking out of the doorway, wearing nothing that the eye could see. Felix checked to make sure Ron was capturing every second.

"_Ron_, you getting this? You better _not_ have the lens cap on."

Ron rolled his eyes as he continued to take photos of Felix's reaction for Monique.

"Yeah, yeah Felix, the lens cap is off. All systems are go."

Slowly Monique came through the door, teasingly sauntering across the floor towards Felix. Adding an extra sway to her hips as she sauntered, closer and closer, to Felix stopping, barely an arm's length away.

As the stunning beauty slowly crossed the floor towards Felix, Ron continued to take photos of Felix. Capturing the expressions as they played across his friends face, at the sight of Monique's well developed body. From barely cancelled excitement, to captivation at the first sight of Monique. To puzzlement, sudden realisation and chagrin, and finally severe disappointment followed by irritation. As he followed Monique's passage, as she made her way across the kitchen floor.

Monique stood in front of Felix wearing a tan mini skirt matched with a lighter tan shirt, the buttons opened down the front of the shirt to reveal the start of Monique's cleavage.

"Well what were you expecting boy, a show?" Monique flipped at Felix.

Felix was looking thoroughly irked at this stage, "You're _supposed_ to be wearing Tara's bikini for the bet. Not dressed like you normally would."

Monique smiled a pleasant, 'I know something you don't know' smile at Felix. As she causally, bent, forward. Her right hand going to her shirt collar and pulling it back, exposing the string to the bikini top beneath.

"Oh but I am wearing the bikini..."

Whatever else Monique was going to say, was quickly drowned out by Ron suddenly choking. Monique slowly straightened up, turning to look at Ron behind her juggling the camera.

Next thing anyone knew, Kim was there catching the camera just as Ron dropped it. Securing the camera, Kim started to pat Ron on the back while looking at Monique and Felix. Curiosity clearly written on her face, wondering what was going on.

Felix was the first to recover his wits at the interruption.

"Kim, Monique's reneging on a bet."

Kim merely raised an eyebrow while turning to look at Monique.

"No I'm not; Felix is just being a sore winner." Monique causally replied to the unasked question.

Felix sounding more than a trifle annoyed, quickly responded to Monique's statement. "Yes you _are,_ the _bet_ was that you would serve me for a day _wearing_ the bikini."

Monique turned and smirked at Felix, "That's right; it said _nothing_ about me parading around in front of you in nothing _but_ the bikini though. I'm _wearing_ the bikini and am _fully_ prepared to serve you."

Felix was silent for a few seconds as he processed what Monique had just said, against what he remembered of the bet. His shoulders slumped as he realised that Monique was correct, nothing had been said about Monique not being able to wear anything over top of the bikini. He had been completely outfoxed by the dark skinned beauty.

"Fine you win this round, but I'll remember this for next time." Felix half heartedly threw at Monique as he started to head towards the door.

Monique turned towards Felix's retreating back, with an innocent look on her face. "Wait, don't you want me to serve you breakfast?"

Felix didn't dignify the comment with a response as he headed out the door. Monique continued to watch the door for a moment as Felix disappeared outside. As soon as she was sure that he was out of hearing she turned towards Kim. The two of them looked at each other for several seconds before bursting out laughing. Ron looked between the two girls for a few seconds.

"Um, I'll just go and see how Felix is doing."

With that he headed out the door after Felix.

ZNCP

Felix was halfway to the Hover Cargo by the time Ron caught up with him. Ron quickly fell in beside his friend, as they continued to move towards the Hover Cargo. Ron had a quick look at Felix, who looked like he was lost in thought.

"You ok buddy, you're not upset over that are you?" Ron enquired.

Felix quickly looked over at Ron, surprise on his face. "Huh, oh um, nah not really. Well I suppose I'm slightly annoyed that Monique managed to pull one over on me…_again_. I thought I had her this time."

Ron looked at his friend again, pondering. "You and Monique do this a lot?"

Felix shrugged, "We've been making bets against each other since we joined the team. Mostly with Monique winning, with you joining the team I thought it'd be my turn to win one. Well I won, but she managed to turn that to her advantage as well."

Ron raised his eyebrow, "So you like her?"

Felix shrugged again, "Sure I like her, she's a fun person to be around. Not to mention she's easy on the eyes. She's a good friend."

"But you _like her_." Ron asked again.

Felix stopped as he realised what Ron was asking him. Ron had just started to pivot back towards him, when he answered.

"Oh, you mean _like her,_ like her. Ron you know that I'm with Zita, besides Monique has her eye on someone else that she's just met."

Felix watched as Ron's expression turned to one of curiosity, (or maybe confusion, they were similar expressions on Ron's face).

"She does, anyone I know?" Ron asked.

Felix just chuckled at his friend's question, "If you haven't figgered it out, I'm not going to ruin the surprise for you."

Ron just shrugged, pushing it out of his mind.

Felix just shook his head, again marvelling at how his friend could just coast like that.

"So Ron, what's the plan? What's happening now?"

"Well I thought I might head up to the Red River area, as there are some ruins that I want to check out over that way." Ron replied looking out towards the southeast direction.

Felix headed over towards the side entrance of the Hover Cargo, activating the small lift to get him inside.

"Sounds like fun, when do we leave?" Felix replied while positioning himself on the platform.

Ron turned back to Felix, raising an eyebrow at him. "Me n Wade leave as soon as you guys finish clearing your gear out."

Felix was shocked at that statement; he stopped what he was doing to look at Ron.

"You're not serious; you can't just up and abandon your team mates."

Ron pointed to his face, "Note serious face Felix, besides it's not my team. I'm not a member remember. Hey that rhymed, member, remember, coolio. Now if only I could do that when I'm trying to rhyme..."

"_WHAT_ do you mean; you're not part of the team. Of course _you're part_ of the team, what made you think otherwise?" Felix demanded, interrupting Ron.

"You only needed me for the team while you were in trouble remember. Besides Kim's already thanked me for the help, n said goodbye. Time to mosey on."

Felix couldn't believe what he was hearing, "You sure you heard Kim right? You sure she wasn't _just_ thanking you because she was grateful for your help?"

Ron started rubbing the back of his neck, "Wellll she could have been, now that I think about it..."

Felix snorted, "Besides we still need you on the team, we've got no zoids remember. All zoids on the team belong to you."

Ron just shrugged, "Meh, you can keep the zoids. It's not like I need them, I'll just swing by the ranch and pick up a couple more. Though just between you and me, I think I made a mistake giving Kim the Lighting Saix. I really don't think she's got the temperament to pilot it. She needs a zoid more like a Liger or…a Shadow Fox."

Ron seemingly lost in thought over the last statement he made, jumped up into the Hover Cargo. Felix finished raising himself on the lift and followed him inside.

Felix called after Ron as he headed into the maintenance bay, 'It's not about the zoids Ron, you're a member of this team…"

Ron sighed, as he turned to face Felix. "No I'm not Felix, I'm just an outsider temporary brought in to fill a gap... Besides it's not like anyone's asked me to be on the team full time."

Felix barely caught the last statement that Ron had mumbled.

"Well you need to be on the team, who knows maybe you'll find what you're looking for."

Ron looked up sharply, "What do you mean, what I'm looking for?"

Felix didn't allow the smile he felt to show on his face. "You're looking for a family Ron. If you allow them, us, to be, we the team that is, could become that family for you."

Ron considered what Felix had just told him, "You're possibly right Felix, but I'm not ready yet to try. Besides you'll just become a target for the Backdraft when they finally come after me. No you're better off if I just leave."

Felix frowned at Ron, "Fine, when do we leave then."

Ron raised an eyebrow. "We?"

"Yes we, I'm going with you." Felix responded.

"But you're needed with the Team Felix."

Felix snorted, "My friend needs me more. So, when do we leave?"

Ron just shrugged, "As soon as the Liger and Rufus are on board, I'll let the girls know."

With that Ron moved through to the maintenance bay. Felix watched him go, before he headed over to the comm. unit on the wall. Felix quickly activated it.

"You there Wade?"

After a couple of seconds Wade's voice came back from the unit. "Yeah, what's up Felix?"

Felix quickly responded, "Well unless you want to go back to aimlessly wandering the countryside, I'd suggest you find the team a battle…quickly. I'd guesstimate you had 30 minutes or so, to do so. And contact the girls."

Without waiting for Wade's reply, Felix headed back out of the Cargo to get the Shield Liger.

ZNCP

Kim and Monique were sitting at the kitchen table, drinking coffee while looking at the pictures that Ron had just taken. Kim was holding the camera flicking the shots forward, both girls were laughing at the expressions on Felix's face. Just as Monique was seen entering the frame, Monique quickly spoke up.

"So Kim, how'd the date with Josh go last night? You didn't return to your room last night, sooo can we guess that you were…_breaking_ the boy in?"

Kim went bright red at Monique's implication, putting the camera down and grabbing up her cup. Kim headed over to the sink, tipping the remains of her coffee down the drain and starting to wash her cup out. Stalling until she regained control of her composure.

With Kim's back turned to her, Monique picked up the camera and flipped through the next couple of photos. Smirking at what she saw was on them, before turning the camera off and taking the memory card out.

"_No need for Kim to see __**those**__ shots._ _Heh._ _Boy's got a good eye, now to slowly reel him in."_

Monique pivoted around towards Kim, while tucking the card into her bikini top.

"_Damn, note to self, next time wear something with pockets. This isn't as comfy as they make it look in the movies. Plus side, Kim won't look here for the card."_

"So can we judge from your silence that it was a wow worthy night, Kim?" Monique cheekily enquired of Kim.

Kim let out a long sigh, knowing that she wasn't going to get out of this conversation. And the more she avoided it the worse it would be when she finally gave in to Monique, and talked about it. Turning to face Monique, Kim raised an eyebrow when she saw Monique playing with the camera.

"Thought, I'd get a couple of copies printed. So I could give them to the girls." Monique responded to the unasked question with a slightly guilty look on her face.

Kim noted the look but didn't enquire further.

"It was an ok night, I suppose. It just felt too much like I was a sixteen year old again, trying to impress the hottie. Don't think there will be another date."

Monique felt a jolt of surprise, to hide her sudden start she got up from the table. Grabbing her cup she headed over to the sink and drained the last mouthfuls of coffee before proceeding to wash her cup out.

Monique looked over her shoulder towards Kim, "You sure you're not going to go on another date with Josh?"

Kim frowned at the thought, "Positive, why are you so _interested_ in my love life anyway Monique?"

Monique dried her hands on the tea towel as she turned to face Kim. "Because the last two battles you were, _way_ off your game. I figger it was due to Eric, well if one boy is the cause of you being off your game. The way I see it, it takes another boy to get you back on your game."

Kim just shrugged and headed out the door, Monique joined her.

"But the date was just so awkward, stilted. I wasn't comfortable the whole time. Maybe he's not the right boy I need to see…maybe I need to see someone more…down to earth."

For some reason Kim suddenly had a picture of Ron pop up in her head. With him stripped down to his waist, covered in grease. The scene in general had taken place earlier on in the week, when they had been fixing the zoids. Ron had been directing the placement of the new leg onto the Saix. It was something Kim knew Josh wouldn't do, if something needed fixing on his zoid he left it to the Mad Dog Team mechanic's to fix.

Lost in her thoughts Kim didn't notice the look of panic quickly cross Monique's face, as she saw the dreamy look on Kim's face appear. Before Kim could notice she quickly composed herself.

Monique suddenly perked up "Maybe you just need to relax more on the date, hey tell you what. The Middleton Days Ball is coming up, why don't you go with Josh to that. Felix, Me …n Ron can be there as well to give you...support. That way you'll be more relaxed, and you can give the boy a real shot. Instead of cutting and burning him like you are."

Kim was about to answer, when she saw the Shield Liger being manoeuvred into the Hover Cargo via the rear hatch.

Kim turned to Monique "Hey Monique did Felix say anything about going out for a test run or anything."

Monique looked puzzled, "No he didn't."

"Then why would he…" Kim began, before she and Monique faced each other.

"We got a _battle._" Both girls said at the same time.

"Jinx… you owe me a soda." Kim got in before Monique.

"Fine." Monique grumbled back, "But don't think for one second that this conversation is over."

Kim and Monique ran over to the hanger, going into their zoids. Hearing the comms beeping from the cockpit, Kim did a couple of flips up to the cockpit to answer the comms.

"Show off" Monique called after her.

Kim just answered the comms, ignoring Monique. "What's the sitch Wade?"

"The team has a battle up at Go City. We need you to load up now, as it's in a few hours." Wade's voice came back over the comms.

"No big Wade, we'll be loaded in five." With that Kim switched off the comms before she leaned out of the Saix's cockpit to yell at Monique. "Hey Mon, load up. Where on, at Go City."

With that Kim started up the Saix and headed out the main hanger doors.

ZNCP

Kim looked around the briefing room at the rest of the team. Felix was at one end of the curved seat, with Ron sprawled next to him with his arms up on the backing of the seat looking relaxed. Monique was sitting next to Ron, not up close, but close enough that if Ron was to bring his hand off the back of the seat he could rest it on Monique's back. For some reason this disturbed Kim, but she couldn't put her finger on why.

Turning towards the main screen Kim addressed the young genius, whose visage was on the screen.

"What's the sitch Wade?"

Not looking directly at the group Wade addressed them "The team has been issued a challenged from a team out of Go City."

Felix looked up sharply, "We were challenged? We didn't issue the challenge?"

Kim spared a quick glance at Felix, wondering what she had missed. Judging from what she could see of his expression, Ron was wondering the same thing.

Wade answered Felix after taking a quick sip of his ever present soda. "That's right; we got the challenge as soon as I logged on that we were up and running again. The challenge was practically waiting for us."

"Trap", Kim heard Ron grunt from behind her.

Kim turned towards Ron, again being irked by Monique's closeness to him.

"_She has the whole seat to sit on, why does she have to sit there?"_

"Why, do you think that Ron?" Kim asked raising an eyebrow.

Ron shrugged as he brought his hands down from the back of the seat, "We kicked Eric's can just over a week ago, now we get a challenge out of the blue. Eric's up to his usual trick's sending others to fight in his stead. So trap."

Wade joined in from behind her, "Given Eric's past actions, I have to agree with Ron. This is in all likelihood a trap."

"So if it's a trap, what do we do?" Monique asked with concern colouring her voice.

"_Did Monique just slide closer to Ron?"_

Kim's gaze narrowed as she continued to watch Monique.

"We trip it, now that we know it's a trap we shouldn't get caught. Unless it's a trap, trap. As they know that we know that it's a trap, so they set another trap. But now that we know that they know that we know that it's a trap we can be prepared. Unless they set a trap, trap, trap. Because they know that we know that they know that we know that it's a trap. But now that we know that they know that we know that they know that we know that they know, wait was that too many. They know we know they know ohhh I'm getting a headache."

Ron leaned forward resting his head in his hands, as everyone else just looked at him. After a few seconds Kim turned towards the screen again.

"Riiight. Wade maybe if we knew who we were going against, we could make a better decision."

While Wade was typing away on his keyboard, Kim flopped down on the seat between Monique and Ron.

"Hey watch it Kim, did you have to sit there?" Monique complained as she was forced down the seat.

Kim turned an innocent expression on Monique, "What I'm not allowed to sit next to both my friends?"

Monique just glared at Kim, while getting comfortable again on the seat.

Bringing the information up on the screen as he started to brief the team, Wade started the battle brief.

"All right the challenge is from Team Stop…"

Ron suddenly perked up, "Team Stop, you've got to be kidding me. Team Stop, why on Zi would you name your team Stop. I take it back; Team Pizzazz is no longer worst team name I have ever heard. What were they thinking?"

Wade just sighed, used to these rants from Ron. "They're named Team Stop, as they're forever trying to _stop_ Team Go."

Felix looked impressed, "Team Go, don't they work with the law in Go city. They're supposed to be pretty good."

"Last time I fought them, I didn't have to do a thing as they self destructed." Ron replied to Felix with a smirk.

Kim looked at Wade, raising an eyebrow, "Wade?"

"Well by all accounts they're not that challenging, but they still rank higher than Team Possible…"

"Sooo can anybody say easy points." Monique added with a grin.

Kim frowned at the comment, "Don't get cocky Monique, it'll cost us. Who are we going against and what are they piloting Wade."

"Right first up we have Aviarius in a Storm Sworder, Electronique in a modified Guysak, and the Mathter in an hmmm that's unusual a Leogator."

Wade looked up from his side screen at the group.

Ron was the first to respond, "What are the modifications made to the Guysak?"

Wade resumed typing on his keyboard for a few seconds before responding. "According to the last report made by the Zoid Battle Commission, Electronique has changed the rail gun out for an electrical discharge cannon."

Ron looked puzzled, "Strange modification to make, she would have had a greater range with the rail gun."

"But in close, if she hits you with the discharge cannon she'll grind you down rather quickly." Kim responded looking thoughtful.

"But the Guysak, while a fairly solid zoid, it isn't as rugged as most zoids, and in close enough to use the discharge cannon it would be at a disadvantage to other short range weapons being used against it."

Kim pondered what Ron had disclosed for a few seconds.

"You suspect other modifications Ron?"

Ron just shrugged, "Maybe."

"We'll just have to keep our eyes open, now how are we going to counter them."

Kim paused for a couple of seconds before continuing.

"We're at a disadvantage against the Storm Sworder, the Guysak and Leogator shouldn't be too much of a challenge. But with the Sworder backing them up it will be hard to close with them. Any ideas Ron?"

Ron just shrugged, "Well flying zoids aren't my strong point, but… I've got 2000 rounds of 105mm mortar sky burst rounds sitting in the hold. We load the Dibison up with those…"

"Monique can put up enough flack to keep it off our backs. Then you and me can take out the others, then join in taking potshots at the Sworder till we bring it down. Sounds like a plan, I'll take out the Guysak, while you take on the Leogator." Kim finished for Ron

"What about Felix, what will he be doing?" Wade asked

"Felix, ummm, monitoring the battle?" Kim replied uncertainly.

"Kim the battle mode will be 0990, 3 on 4, so Felix will be in on the fight." Wade responded.

Ron replied before Kim could. "Felix will protect Monique while keeping an eye out for the trap."

Kim looked at Ron; she still couldn't get over how he could change from an awkward, irresponsible kid. Into a battle hardened warrior at the flick of a switch.

"Sounds like a plan Wade, let us know when we get to the battle ground."

ZNCP

Felix watched as Ron got up and left after the briefing, he was concerned about Ron. He had been uncharacteristically subdued during the briefing.

"Anyone else think Ron was a little down?" Kim's voice came from behind him.

Felix rotated his chair around to face Kim, who was looking thoughtfully at where Ron had just gone.

"He seemed fine to me, his normal wonderfully chaotic self." Monique replied from where she was still sitting.

Kim turned to look at Monique; Felix noted her raised eyebrow and the slight tightening around her eyes.

"_That could be trouble."_

"Well, Ron was slightly down this morning when I talked to him."

Kim quickly turned to Felix, "Down, How so Felix?"

Felix sighed, "Well he was unsure of his place on the team, or if he even has a place on the team for that matter."

"Of course he has a place on the team, why would he...ohh never mind I can think of several reasons off the top of my head why he would think that." Kim replied, sighing.

Monique gave a half smile, "Let me guess, times where you nutted off at the boy for no reason."

"Yeah Mon, how'd you guess." Kim replied without looking at Monique.

Felix interrupted before Kim could start feeling guilty about Ron.

"You need to talk to him Kim."

"Yeah I know Felix, I know... Well no time like the present."

With that Kim started to head towards the door. Monique jumped up intent on following Kim.

"Wait up Kim, I'll go with you." Monique called after Kim.

"_Great, what a time for Monique to get possessive of Ron."_

"Actually Monique, I thought you would be going to the kitchen?" Felix threw at Monique before she started to move.

Monique turned towards Felix, putting a hand on her hip in an agitated stance.

"Now _why_ would I be doing that, Felix?" Irritation clearly evident, in Monique's voice.

"Because, you're going to be serving me all day. Now Ron was just finishing making some flapjack batter earlier, I'd like mine nicely done with butter and maple syrup on them about a stack of five high. And don't bother burning them, as we have about three hours before the battle. So lots of time to redo them." Felix responded with a smile on his face.

"Remember you have to serve me for a day, so you started today at lets see. Let's call it eight o'clock, so I'll have breakfast at six thirty tomorrow in the kitchen. Let's not tempt you to tip breakfast over me tomorrow in bed."

Monique just glared at Felix; obviously she had not expected to serve him today after the stunt she had just pulled with the bikini.

"What afraid you'll lose something?" Felix guessing, that Monique would rather be keeping an eye on Kim and Ron, than serve him.

"Pfft, as if. All I have to do is dangle a pretty face in front of Kim and she'll be distracted." Monique retorted.

"Is that why you're throwing Josh in Kim's face?"

ZNCP

Kim was just moving up the stairs towards Ron's room, nervous about the upcoming talk with Ron and how he'd take it. Reaching the door to his room, Kim paused taking a deep breath before knocking.

"-Doors open-"

Kim opened the door pocking her head round the door to look inside.

"You don't mind if I come in do you Ron?"

Ron looked up from where he was seated.

"Huh, oh, um, no of course not. Um don't mind the mess, heh heh."

Going into Ron's room, Kim was pleasantly surprised to find it was tidier than the last time she had been in here. Ron's clothes had been tidied away, and his bed was made. What really surprised Kim was that Ron wasn't lying on the double bed like she had assumed that he would be doing. He was, instead sitting at a fold out desk next to the bed with books on it.

Kim wandered over to the desk, sitting on the side of the bed.

"What ya reading?" Kim inquired cheekily, peering over at the book Ron was reading. Noticing at the same time that Ron was taking notes in a notebook.

Ron just leaned back in his seat, twisting the book he was reading around so Kim could look at it.

"I'm just reading up on the Nakasumi Corporation."

"The Nakasumi Corporation? Aren't they a toy company?"

"They are now, but back in 2099 during the height of the Republic, Empire war they manufactured zoids. In fact they developed a zoid to compete against the Liger Zero in 2101."

Kim was now paying full attention to Ron, and what he was telling her.

"They did, what zoid did they develop?"

Ron gave Kim a goofy grin. "You've seen it."

"What, Rufus? You're kidding me, they developed Rufus?" Kim was in disbelief.

"Yeah, they developed Rufus. Apparently they only made fifteen of him. And I own the only known working model." Ron added smugly.

Kim frowned, "Why did they only produce fifteen zoid's? I would have thought that they would have massed produced him, considering how versatile he is."

Ron picked up his notebook, flipping back a couple of pages.

"Well they lost out on the military contact with the Republic, as they were competing against the Liger Zero. The Republic went with the Liger as they were proven in combat with the Shield and its successor the Blade Liger. Plus while Rufus is CAS capable, Nakasumi didn't have any CAS armours created for him. While the Liger Zero had the Panzer armour ready and the Jager and Schneider armours in the development stage."

"But couldn't they just put the Panzer armour onto Rufus, and field test him that way?"

"Unfortunately the Liger Zero CAS armours aren't fully compatible with Rufus. Wade and me had to make several modifications to the Panzer, Schneider and X armours for them to fit on Rufus. Now this is where it gets interesting, according to the information that I found. Nakasumi where going to release an armour to combat this. It was experimental armour, it's not even recorded anywhere if they made it or not. But get this they weren't making it to fit Rufus, no they were designing it to fit a Motownus Grande. That's right they had an advanced model of Rufus being designed at the time they were unveiling the original, and get this. They were going to use the new Organoid system in it, meaning that they were all going to be Ultimate X's." Ron finished, clearly highly excited about this subject.

Kim just sat back, shocked at the amount of research that Ron had put in. The boy she knew would never have put as much effort into school work like this.

"What was the amour supposed to do?" was the only coherent question Kim could put to Ron after getting bombarded with all the information.

"Don't know, it was never recorded. All that was recorded was its name and where it was being built."

Kim frowned, thinking that it may be impossible to find the armour "So how do you know if it was built or not."

"I won't until I go dig around in the ruins at Red River." Ron replied with a shrug, putting his notebook down.

"Red River?"

"Apparently Nakasumi had a research facility just outside the Red River township."

"What happened to it?"

"The Death Stinger levelled it when it was running amok."

Kim just sat on the bed, continuing to stare at Ron. After a couple of minutes of this Ron started to fidget, uncomfortable under Kim's scrutiny.

"What are you looking at?"

Kim blushed slightly at getting caught staring at Ron.

"Sorry I'm just having a hard time, reconciling the boy who hated schoolwork of any kind with who you are now. You know if you had put this much effort into your school work when we were younger you might have enjoyed it more."

"If I could have seen the point of it I probably would have… But hanging around archaeologist's for as long as I did you're bound to learn something. Research what you're after, note clues and histories. Then search through all the trails to remove dead ends and false trails. Then double check everything and go and look. Most times you found nothing, but those times you did find something. It was like the past was coming to life."

"You sound like you enjoy it Ron."

"I do Kim, as twisted as it sounds. Despite him working for an evil organisation bent on world domination, Alteil is a brilliant teacher."

Kim couldn't think of anything to ask after that, but she was in no hurry to do so. As she was feeling very comfortable just hanging with Ron. Finally Kim asked the question that had only been partially answered earlier.

"So what was the armour called?"

"The Lotus Armour."

ZNCP

Kim was in front of Monique and Felix, in her Saix, with Ron in Rufus to the left of her. She was feeling good, very relaxed. Considering that the team's normal pre-battle routine had gone out the window since Ron had joined, she was feeling very confidant for the upcoming battle. She had been calm the entire time leading up to the battle. She had just hung out with Ron catching up on what he had been doing while travelling with Alteil. Not once being concerned about what was to come. On reflexion she had never been as sure of her team than she was right now.

Listening to the team over the comms, they all seemed to be pretty relaxed. Monique was grumping at Felix about something being above and beyond the entitlements of the bet.

"_I don't want to know about it, just remind myself not to ask later."_

As for Ron...

"_Is that snoring coming from Rufus?"_

"RON! You better _not _be sleeping."

Ron's startled reply came back through the comms, "Huh, what, um Kim? Uh no, pfft noooo, I wasn't sleeping. Just resting my eyes, yeah, resting my eyes. Heh, heh."

Kim just sighed and rolled her eyes, then she directed her gaze across the battle field where Team Stop was assembled. The Leogater and Guysak were directly opposite with the Storm Sworder hovering above. There had been no communications with the team since they had arrived there a few minutes before. Kim wasn't really concerned about it, as they had pretty much agreed that this was a trap coming in. Now they were just waiting for the Judge to start the battle to see what type of trap they had walked into.

Kim was interrupted from her musing by the sound of an incoming object whistling through the air. This was quickly followed by a huge and grinding impact about a rough kilometre away, directly halfway between the teams. Once the smoke and dust had settled from the air, the white judge's capsule could be seen deep inside of the crater. The front of the capsule then pivoted up, revealing the white judge that had been cocooned within the capsule. It paused before talking scanning the battlefield.

"This battle has been approved."

"Battle mode 0990, approved..."

"Area scanned...area clear."

"Battlefield set-up..."

"Ready..."

Just before the Judge could finish he was interrupted by the sound of an incoming object whistling through the air. This was quickly followed by a huge and grinding impact right on top of the Judges capsule. Once the smoke and dust had settled from the air, a black judge's capsule could be seen deep inside of the crater, amid the debris of the white judge's capsule. The front of the capsule then pivoted up, revealing a black judge that had been cocooned within the capsule. It was roughly humanoid in shape with a single leg, and in the place of its hands were blue and red plates that were used to signal which team had won a fight, exactly like the white judge. With black spikes around its throat like a collar, and spikes at its wrists.

"Mah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha…"

The Dark Judges cold metallic laugh rang out over the battlefield.

Kim heard Monique snort over the comms.

"You called it Ron, trap."

A cold feminine voice with a clipped accent answered Monique

"Yes, but we knew that you would know…"

Felix interrupted before she could finish.

"Yeah, yeah you planned a trap, trap. Ron called that one to."

A screechy male voice answered Felix

"Ahh, but we guessed that you'd know that we know that you know that we know. So…"

Kim interrupted this time.

"So you planned a trap, trap, trap. Ron's batting three for three today. Can't you guys come up with something original?"

An arrogant male voice answered mockingly.

"You think you're so smart, but we did the math. And we knew that you'd know that we know that you know that we know that we know that you know that we know…"

Felix interrupted once more.

"That's too many."

"What?"

"That's too many you know we knows." Felix responded calmly.

"Never, I have done the math. Never have I gotten it wrong, to add too many is impossible."

"Well you did."

"I have checked the math, and have come up with the correct answer. That being you are going to be subtracted from the equation."

"You're avoiding the subject; you know you did too many." Felix scoffed.

"ENOUGH." The Dark Judges voice rang out impatiently.

Once the Dark Judge was sure that all were listening, he continued.

"Team Possible have been challenged by the Backdraft, you will accept the challenge."

As he spoke Kim made out the shapes of two Whale Kings descending from above. She also spied Rufus edging forward of her position, moving closer to the Dark Judge.

"What's in it for us if we do?" Kim enquired, while bringing the Saix up even with Rufus again.

Instead of the Dark Judge answering, it was to Kim's surprise Eric that answered as his Lighting Saix came up over the ridge behind Team Stop.

"You will get ten, no… fifteen times the normal winnings."

One of the Whale Kings stayed hovering above the battlefield, while the other landed as Eric gave his announcement. As Kim continued to watch the Whale Kings, Ron spoke up. Kim realised that it was the first time he had said anything since the Dark Judge had appeared. And what he asked left her with a feeling of dread.

"Are you part of the assault group Eric?"

As he asked this, Rufus once again stalked forward, this time towards Eric. As this happened the mouth of the grounded Whale King opened and Rev Raptors started descending down the lower jaw as it became a ramp.

"What was that loser?" Eric replied arrogantly.

Bay doors built into the belly of the hovering Whale King opened and at least sixty Zabat's launched into the sky. As the Zabat's launched, Rev Raptors continued to come down the ramp of the grounded Whale King. Kim estimated that there was at least the same amount of Rev Raptors as there was Zabat's.

"I asked, if you had the balls to join in, ya coward." Ron's voice came angrily through the comms.

"_Ron what are you thinking, there's about 120 zoids out there not including Eric and Team Stop."_

"And miss the chance to destroy you personally, of course I'm in."

Eric responded with the arrogant edge still in his voice, as the Rev Raptors deployed into strike formations between Ron and Eric.

"What's the battle mode? Standard Backdraft?" Ron asked the anger could still be heard in his voice even though he asked more calmly.

The Dark Judge responded to the question with a mocking quality to his metallic voice.

"Battle mode 0999 has been approved…"

"You're _**on**_." Came Ron's response as Rufus shot forward, as his boosters quickly accelerated him to full speed.

Before Rufus had gone 500 meters he was met by a wedge of ten Rev Raptors in an arrow head formation. Without breaking stride Rufus meet the lead Raptor with both forepaws up. Just before Rufus's strike laser claws went into the neck of the Raptor the AZ 108 mm High-Density Beam Guns housed in the forearms opened up destroying the neck amour and severing the control relays from the cockpit in the head. Then both paws slammed into the chest and pulled down. Without the laser energy going into the claws, they bit deep wedging in. Using the double grip, Rufus pushed the Raptor back and brought his rear claws up into the body catapulting himself forward between the next two Raptors in the formation. Leaving a smoking wreckage of a zoid behind him, Rufus's laser claws were activated as he turned the dive into a left corkscrew with his arms going wide. The claws shredded armor and cut limbs and strike blades off the Raptors on either side of him, turning them into smoking hulks. Rufus landed in front of the middle Raptor and reared up, his right paw hitting the Raptor at the hip and continued on up to the back of the head. Internal components blew out as the Raptor fell to the side away from Rufus. Still reared up Rufus brought both paws over from a straight overhead arm strike, with his strike laser claws going through the necks of the middle two Raptors of the final row in the wedge. Partially severing the neck on the Raptor to his right, and fully decapitating the Raptor on his left before proceeding on a course that would take him to Eric.

Kim, Felix and Monique watched as Ron in Rufus ploughed across the battlefield leaving a trail of destruction behind him. Momentarily stunned at the sudden viciousness of Ron's attacks in Rufus, this was a side of him they had never seen. Judging from the pilot's reactions in the Rev Raptors, they weren't expecting this either. They were not attacking in group formations; instead they were attacking as individuals. Giving Ron the advantage in the far more mobile Rufus, but it was only a matter of time before they became organised again and overwhelmed him with sheer numbers.

No sooner had Kim thought that, than the hovering Whale King above opened fire on Rufus.

Monique opened a comm. Line with Kim.

"Shit Kim, what are we doing?"

Kim heard a slight tremor in Monique's voice; given the odds against them she couldn't blame Monique. What they needed was Ron to armour up in the Panzer armour if they were to have a chance. But Ron clearly only had one thing on his mind right now.

"No change to the plan Monique, you keep the Zabat's and Storm Sworder off our backs. Felix you protect Monique. I'll go round up Ron, so he can armour up with the Panzer armour."

Before Kim could sign off, Felix came in over the comms.

"What's he doing Kim?"

"Isn't it obvious Felix? Ron blames Eric for his parent's deaths, now he's going to return the favour to Eric."

Kim's calm reply left Monique and Felix speechless. Before either could reply Kim moved off, all the time she only had one thought as she watched Rufus deftly avoid incoming fire from the Whale King while taking out Rev Raptors in a graceful dance of death.

"_I would love to see Rufus go up against Bit's Liger Zero or Vega's __Berserk Fury."_

ZNCP

Eric watched as the battle before him unfolded, he did not like what he was seeing. Not only were Team Possible not being quickly overwhelmed, they were holding their own. While the loser was ripping his way through the Rev Raptors and across the battlefield towards him, even with the Whale King firing on him. If what he had over heard on their comms was true, then the loser wanted to do to him, what he was doing to the Raptor's. Eric did not want to come within ten kilometres of those claws again.

To add insult to injury the Zabat's were proving ineffective due to the Dibison putting up so much flack that they couldn't effectively engage anyone. It had even managed to down ten to fifteen of them.

Eric winched as Ron took out another couple of Raptor's

"_Damn, that's about 23 he's taken out now. What are those idiots doing, how hard is it to take out one lousy zoid for fuck's sake."_

Between Ron and Kim they had managed to take out just over half of his ground troops, this had to stop. It was time to change tactics. Eric activated his comms.

"Team Stop, do something useful and take out that damn Dibison. Whale King One and two; release the rest of your strike forces."

No sooner had Eric given the order than sixty more Rev Raptors proceeded down the ramp on the grounded Whale King. While an equal amount of Zabat's launched from the other Whale King.

"_Even if you change into the Panzer armour now, you'll never be able to take out all my forces. Of course if you do change into the Panzer armour, I win."_

ZNCP

Kim was quickly criss crossing the battlefield, of course given the Lighting Saix speed and agility it wasn't entirely voluntary. At max speed it took the Saix half the battlefield to change direction. The good news was the shockwave from her passing close to the Raptors knocked them over if they were unprepared. Nine times out of ten this was enough to put them into a system freeze. The bad news was she had to move in close to the Raptors, close enough that if one of the pilots reacted fast enough they maybe able to hit her with one of their strike blades. If she got hit from one of them at the speed she was going it was all over.

Kim was finding the Saix very frustrating to pilot; it just wouldn't turn as fast as she wanted. Nor was it as agile or versatile as she wanted either.

"_If only I could have the Shadow Fox, them we would be able to finish this quickly."_

It didn't help matters that she had to be constantly trying to avoid incoming rounds from the Whale King either; she had already had several near misses.

Just has another round landed close enough to knock dirt and rocks into the side of the Saix.

"_Damn, I've had enough of this."_

Kim activated her comms.

"Wade, can you get that Whale King off our backs?"

"Sure Kim it shouldn't be a problem."

Kim would have been more confident, if she hadn't heard a note of uncertainty in his voice.

Kim watched out of the corner of her eye as the Hover Cargo moved forward into a position where it could engage the hovering Whale King. Sensing what the Cargo was about to do the Whale King changed its focus of attack onto the Cargo, only to have its attacks harmlessly impact on the Cargos forward shields. Then the Cargo returned fire, only instead of the AZ120mm Anti-Air Cannons or Twin Dual 30mm Machineguns opening up like Kim expected. Twin blasts of plasma energy lashed out from either side of the cockpit where the Anti-Air Cannons normally would be with a huge boom. The beams went straight up through the Zabats between the Cargo and the Whale King, destroying a half dozen of them. The blast continued up through the left side of the Whale Kings hull and completely severed the left fin off of the side. The Whale King listed to the left as it started to slowly descend off to the left of the battle field out of the fight.

Kim quickly contacted Wade.

"Wade what the hell was that?"

"You brother's had modified two sets of PW-10 weapons units to act as main cannons on the Cargo. They also managed to amplify the beams, unfortunately the Cargo wasn't meant to have that type of fire power. All the firing controls in the cockpit have been fried, and I think the weapons themselves have been damaged with that shot as well."

Kim could only think of one thing to say at this news.

"Tweebs…"

Still the shot had been effective, at not only getting rid of the Whale King. But it also had startled Rufus and forced Ron to pause for a second to see what was going on. Kim used this brief pause to finally catch up to him. As she approached she blasted the Raptor in front of Rufus that he had already partially disabled, and used the shockwave of the Saix to clear the immediate area around him of enemies.

Kim pulled the Saix to a stop in front of Rufus. Activating her comms. Kim wondered if Ron would respond, or just continue on his rampage.

"Ron stop, think about what you're doing."

Kim was relieved when she heard him respond.

"Trust me Kim, I've thought long and hard about this. It's time that bastard got what's coming to him."

"And who's going to give it to him Ron, you?"

"Kim do you know what that bastards done…"

"_NO_ Ron and neither do you. You're only _guessing_ that he had something to do with you parents deaths."

"This bastard _has_ killed before Kim, in cold blood. _This_ is what he deserves…"

"It won't bring them, or your parents back Ron. All it will do is lower you to his level. By doing that he wins, don't let him win Ron. Prove that my bestest friend is better than him. Show him what it means to be a valued and trusted member of this team."

Ron didn't reply to Kim, unfortunately Eric had been listening in on their conversation.

"That's right loser, prove to Kim how big a kitchen bitch you are."

Ron responded to Eric's needling, but his tone was more like his normal light hearted tone than the angry tone he had been using before.

"Hey Eric, did you ever get that seating at the Arenas lunchroom?"

The question meant nothing to Kim, but judging from the expletives coming from Eric, it meant something to him.

"So Kim who takes him out then, you?"

Kim smiled at the question.

"Nahh, I'm to emotionally envolved."

Kim opened up a comm. Link to Felix.

"Hey Felix."

Felix grunted in reply, as explosions could be heard in the background.

"Kinda busy here Kim."

"Take out that loser Eric for us would you? Please and thank you."

"Gee thanks Kim, your generosity is so kind."

Kim had to laugh at the sarcasm, she contacted Ron once more.

"Ron its Panzer time."

With that Ron gracefully turned Rufus around and headed back to the Hover Cargo.

ZNCP

Monique was starting to feel concerned, 2000 rounds had sounded like a lot back in the briefing. They were now about thirty minutes into this battle give or take, and Monique was down to about 7% of her ammunition left for her main weapons. With all the rounds that she had been sending skyward you would have thought that she would have taken more Zabats out than she had. Instead there was more now then there had been to start with, to add to her troubles Team Stop had been after her as well. Felix had been holding them off so far, but they had been knocking him around a fair bit. Also they had been sending Rev Raptors in to help them as well; Monique had been helping where she could. On the plus side Kim had finally caught up with Ron, once he had the Panzer armour on this would be ended very quickly.

Monique looked over at Felix, the Guysak was hammering down on the Ligers shields with its discharge cannon, while the Leogator was trying to close with him to attack with it's smash claws in Leo mode. Felix was striking back where he could with his AZ 30mm Double-Barrelled Beam Gun on the Ligers back or using his AZ 3-Barrel Shock Cannon attached to the ligers chest. Trying to keep both zoids at bay or disable them, which was proving to be easier to say than done. As Felix had found out quickly when he was concentrating on the Leogater and allowed the Guysak to close, intent on separating the two. Once the Guysak was within range, Felix had opened up with his missile pods only for the Guysak to cross its claws activating the shields that it had been modified with as well. Ron was batting 100% today, not that it helped Felix as he was now going against two zoids with shields. While they weren't as strong as the Shield Ligers shields, they were enough to stop most of his attacks. Add to that the electrical discharge cannon was eating away at his shields, Felix was in trouble as Team Stop continued to double team him.

Monique noticed half a dozen Raptors trying to sneak around Felix's right flank, she quickly activated her right 8-Shot Missile Pod and fired at them. Just to make sure they were out of the fight she opened up with her AMD Double-Barrelled 20mm Beam Cannon on the Dibison's back and AZ 3-Barreled Shock Cannon in its chest totally destroying the Raptors.

Monique had no sooner dealt with the Raptors when she noticed Felix's shields flickering under the last assault from the Guysak's discharge cannon. The Leogator tried to take advantage of the hit to close once again, with Felix once more managing to beat him off. Unfortunately Electronique took the momentary distraction her team-mate proved to get another shot in on Felix. The Ligers shields flickered once more before dying out altogether. The Mathter quickly changed the Leogator from Leo form to Gator form and quickly swivelled round using the gators tail to knock the legs of the Liger out from under it.

Monique started to charge to Felix rescue when she heard more bad news over the comms.

"And Kim thought you would be able to defeat me, cripple. I think not. Stand aside and let me finish him."

The Leogator backed off just as Eric's Saix became visible; he just stood there for a few seconds watching the Liger. While the Mathter's attack hadn't put the Liger into a system freeze, it had damaged its legs as was evident from the trouble Felix was having getting it to stand up. If Eric hit Felix with a shock wave now, if he was lucky all that would happen is the Liger would be tossed around and end up with a system freeze. _If_ he was lucky.

Monique was about to charge in to deflect the Saix when she got an incoming text message from Felix.

'Mon hold your ground, when I give the signal. Take out the Leogator while I take care of the Guysak."

Monique had no sooner read the message, than Eric charged. Just when Monique thought it was all over for Felix, the Shield Liger charged to its feet with its shields activated. The Saix careened off of the shields at full speed, sending it into a total system freeze.

"Ron was right you do always fall for the Rotham feint, Monique now."

Felix quickly brought the AMD Double-Barrelled 20mm Beam Cannon mounted on the Ligers tail around and nailed the Guysak before it could activate its shields. While Monique went after the Leogator, quickly catching it and slamming the Dibisons Crusher hooves down onto it's back sending it into a systems freeze. As Monique finished off the Leogator, Felix finished off the Guysak with his shock cannon.

Monique contacted Felix.

"How'd you manage that one Felix, I thought you were out of it."

"Modified shields on the Liger remember. They're as strong as a Blade Ligers with four shield generators instead of two like a typical Shield Liger. I let Electronique take out the main generators, then went with the hit from the Leogator. After that it was just a matter of waiting for Eric to take the bait, switch to the secondary shield generators and hey presto."

Monique was impressed; it was a good bit of improvisation.

"Well Felix, the good news is Team Stop and Eric are out of commission. Bad news, I'm out of sky burst rounds."

ZNCP

Kim was growing concerned, it had taken Ron longer to get Rufus back to the Hover Cargo than expected. He had only just now reached the Cargo and entered the rear hatch. Monique and Felix had taken out the better Backdraft pilots in the form of Team Stop and Eric and had now entered the fight against the Raptors in a more aggressive capacity. Unfortunately, the Zabats were now free to bombard the team. Things were going from bad to worse, as the Raptors were more organised now and coming in formation again. With the Backdraft attacking from two fronts things were looking dire, especially since they still had well over a hundred zoids on the field of combat.

Kim quickly contacted Wade in the hopes of getting some good news.

"Wade, give me some good news."

"The Zabats are on drone mode, there's no pilots in them. So they wont be as agile as they normally would be, plus their aim won't be as good."

"That's something, not much but I'll take it. Do you know who's controlling them?"

"That's the bad news Kim; it's Aviarius in the Storm Sworder."

"Well that explains why he's been so reluctant to engage. How's Ron going with Rufus?"

"Rufus's Prime armour has been removed, rotating secondary armour into place. Ron will be finished and back on the ground in thirty seconds," Wade responded.

Kim glanced over towards the cargo: it had started moving forward. Its left side panel pivoted down with the maintenance deck sliding out onto the panel. On top of it stood Rufus, now standing 8.9 meters tall and decked out within the bulky green Panzer armour. With the twin Hybrid cannons prominently displayed upon his shoulders.

Wade could be heard over the communications. "Rufus Panzer CAS complete. Rufus Panzer deployed."

Rufus dropped off of the back of the panel and landed hard upon the ground. No soon had he landed than Eric's laughter could be heard coming from the comms.

"I win loser, I win, not you. Do it now Aviarius, seal our victory in fire."

No sooner had Eric spoken than a dozen Zabats dove towards Rufus. Ron turned Rufus to face them, just as they released their payload. A massive fireball engulfed Rufus as he was hit with the incendiary bombs.

The whole battlefield came to a halt as Rufus disappeared in the flames, watching to see what would remain.

"_What have you done Eric_?" Kim screamed over the comms.

"Come Kim surely you remember you zoid profiles from the Academy? Remember the Liger Zero Panzer is prone to overheating due to the weight of the armour. The loser has just been flambéed." Eric finished laughing manically.

Kim responded very calmly to Eric, as if trying to explain something to a child.

"There's just one problem with that plan Eric, Rufus isn't a Liger Zero."

Eric stuttered a reply.

"W-w-w-what?"

Eric had no sooner asked the question, than Rufus came bounding out of the flames and smoke. Landing heavily, but with little apparent effort to support the weight of the armour and looking none the worse for wear despite the intense heat it had just been subjected to."

"H-h-how is that possible?"

"The Liger Zero overheats as it's not quite strong enough to move with the armour on, Rufus is stronger than a Liger Zero. So no overheating problem."

Kim finished explaining to Eric in the same condensing tone.

ZNCP

Ron moved Rufus across the battlefield, glad that he had followed Wade's suggestion of putting cooling generators into the Panzer armour when they modified it for Rufus. He was looking to come up with a targeting plan; he contacted Wade to see where he should shoot first.

"Wade, give me a break down of zoids left on the field."

Wade's image appeared on the top of the cockpits visor, he was looking at something just off screen, typing away on the keyboard.

"Lets see Ron; there is 83 Zabat's, 63 Rev Raptor's, 1 Storm Sworder and a Whale King left. From what I'm picking up on the Cargos sensors, the Whale King is about to take off."

"Well I guess that's the first order of the day, take out the King. Then the drones and finish whatever's left after that."

Ron pulled Rufus around so he was facing the Whale King; he quickly activated the Hybrid Cannons. The targeting sensor pooped out from the right side of the seat behind him and covered his right eye. He quickly targeted the Whale King through the thickest concentration of Raptors that he could find. Setting Rufus up for the shot, he then fired the twin Hybrid Cannons. Four beams shot out passing through the Raptors destroying them instantly. The pilots only being saved, as the zoids safety procedures activated ejecting them from the cockpits at the last second. The beams carried on, going straight through the Whale kings side as if it was made of paper, destroying the Whale Kings primary engines.

"O.K. Ron there is now 38 Raptors on the field." Wade informed Ron.

"I'll deal with them later Wade, first lets take care of those Zabat's."

Without touching anything the Hybrid Cannons targeting sensor tucked itself away, at the same time numerous targeting screens extended around the front of the cockpit. Once they had fully extended, they targeted all the Zabat's and some of the Raptors as well as the Storm Sworder.

"You read my mind Rufus, _Burning Big Bang_."

Missile covers opened from all over the Panzer armour, and rockets shot out towards there intended targets. There was a slight delay before the sky lit up with explosions as the Zabat's and Storm Sworder disappeared. Several of the Raptors also were disabled.

"O.K Ron there are now 30 Rev Raptors felt on the Field." Wade updated Ron.

Ron watched as Kim in the Saix crossed the field at high speed shooting Raptors with precision shots, and taking out others with the shockwave of going at mach 1.25. Monique and Felix also entered the fray, taking out Raptors where they could, while Wade continued to countdown the remaining Raptors.

"25…"

"21…"

"18…"

"12…"

"7…"

"2…"

"And that's game set match to Team Possible." Wade finished.

Ron turned Rufus towards the Dark Judge.

"Well…" Ron asked the Judge

"Well what?" it returned.

Ron activated the Hybrid cannons once more, targeting the Judge.

"_Fine_…victory to Team…Possible." It replied reluctantly in its cold metallic voice.

Once the judgment had been given it quickly closed up its pod and launched into the sky, leaving Team Possible to clean up after the battle.

ZNCP

Kim and Ron were walking through the maintenance bay towards the living quarters. When Ron cleared his throat.

"So Kim, did you mean what you said back there?"

Kim smiled, "What that you're my best friend, or that you're part of the team?"

"Um, both?" Ron replied hesitantly

Kim stopped grabbing Ron's hand and turning him to face her.

"Yes Ron I did, look I know I've been all over the place with you and my temper. For that I'm sorry, I've just been trying to…get my head around the fact that you've returned. You're def not the boy I knew, but you are my friend. It's just taking me time to adjust to who you are now. Sorry if I've been taking it out on you."

Ron smiled, "So does this mean that you'll stop yelling at me?"

"Possibly not, but I'll try to moderate it." Kim replied

"Well I guess I can live with that."

"Ron, what did Eric mean calling you a kitchen bitch? And why was he so upset about seating?"

Ron laughed, "At the Arena we had to do various duties around the complex, cleaning, polishing and such like. They quickly learned that I was a wiz in the kitchen, even the big bosses of the Backdraft were supposed to have called in for seating when I was on. Any way, when I was on I made sure Eric would never get a seat for any meal. One week I swapped duties with a boy named Gil, he liked the water purification plant for some reason. Anyhow, I was on Kitchen duties for a week, a week that Eric didn't eat.'

Kim laughed in spite of her self, "Ron that's terrible."

"But funny KP, but funny."

Kim looked at Ron, "Do you know, that's the first time you've called me that since you returned."

"Guess there's hope for us yet eh KP."

"I guess there is Ron, I guess there is."

ZNCP

"So is there any doubt that the zoid is an Ultimate X?"

The question rang around the room, as scenes of the last battle played on a huge screen in the room. All images on the screen focused on the Motownus.

"No Ateil it is clearly an Ultimate X." Monkey Fist replied to the question.

"You rush into things Lord Fiske, it is not yet certain if it is an Ultimate X."

Monkey Fist turned towards Vega.

"The proof is on the screen before you, what further evidence do you need Vega?"

"All this battle shows us is that it is an exceptional zoid piloted by an exceptional pilot. The true test comes when we see if it is capable of learning from a battle." Vega calmly responded.

"Agreed, we need to test it against a stronger opponent. Will you test it now Vega?"

"Not yet Ateil, not yet. Maybe send one of the Geno Saurer's to test it."

"Indeed, a splendid idea."

"Agreed."

ZNCP

Elsewhere, a blue skinned man wearing a dark blue coat shaped like a lab jacket was wondering down corridors, muttering to himself. Ever so often he would pause and call out.

"_Shego_, Shego where are you. What's the point of hiring a sidekick if I can't find them?"

Turning back into the lairs main area, the man pulled up short as he spied a lithe woman, with long dark hair with greenish tints throughout and pale green skin sitting crossways on a chair filing her nails.

"Shego what are you doing here?"

Without looking up Shego calmly replied. "You called Dr D so here I am, where have you been?"

Dr Drakken bit his tongue, stopping himself from rising to her bait, knowing full well she hadn't been there five minutes earlier.

"Fine, Shego I need you to pop down to Go city and retrieve this power adapter for me."

"Why can't you just say you want me to steal it?"

"Outsourcing Shego, not stealing."

"Fine whatever, what is this doohickey and where is it?"

"It's a universal power adapter; it absorbs energy and adapts it. You can find it at Go Labs. And once you have it I'll be able to finish my latest creation that will allow me to take over the world."

"Yeah yeah, just like the last twenty machines."

Shego didn't bother looking at Dr Drakken as she got up and walked over towards the lairs hanger.

ZNCP

* * *

Next: The Green thief.

Well that was longer than I expected, especially the fight scene. I will try to update as regularly as possible, but with a new son in the house I have little time at the moment.

Guysak is a Scorpion-type Zoid

Storm Sworder is a Pteranodon type Zoid

Zabat is a Bat-type Zoid

Leogator is, as its name implies, a lion and alligator-type Zoid, and is capable of changing between the two forms to adapt to the tasks that are required of it.

Rev Raptor is a Velociraptor-type Zoid

Death Stinger – Water Scorpion type zoid. Considered a water going version of the Death Saurer

For those that care the unmodified Panzer amour has AZ Two-Shot Missile Pods (4), AZ Three-Shot Grenade Launchers (4), AZ Two-Shot Micro-Homing Missile Pod (2), AZ Six-Shot Micro-Homing Missile Pod (5), AZ Three-Shot Micro Homing Missile Pod (2), Vulcan Pods 9 shot (2)


End file.
